Scottish city’s summer music festival won't return next year

STIRLING’S Summer Sessions music festival will not return in 2025, it has been confirmed.

The city hosted four nights of live music for the inaugural festival this year during June and July drawing some big names to play in front of thousands of fans.

Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee have all previously hosted Summer Sessions with Stirling being the most recent in trying to run the evenings of live music.

Locals had previously spoken of their desire to see the event become an annual affair for the city and expressed their disappointment about the news online. 

It was reported by The Courier that Stirling Summer Sessions will not be back in 2025.

Although according to the event orgainsers there are hopes the concerts could be held again in 2026.

A Summer Sessions spokesperson said: “The Stirling Summer Sessions were incredible and brought a wide, diverse audience to Stirling to see some amazing artists.

“Unfortunately, we will not be doing the event next summer but would hope to be back in 2026.”

Huge names including Shania Twain, James Arthur, Busted, Tom Jones, and Young Fathers all headlined the festival this year.

It was widely reported at the time that more than 20,000 music revellers went to see pop royalty Twain alone.

(Image: Cuffe & Taylor)

A Stirling Council spokesperson confirmed the event will not be held next year and told The Courier that the local authority was “optimistic” the Summer Sessions would return in 2026.

They said: “The festival reaffirmed Stirling City Park’s reputation as a superb venue for hosting large-scale events and we’ve already had interest in staging other events at the site next year, which we will be exploring further over the coming weeks.”

Other acts who played at the Stirling Summer Sessions included Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, Loreen, Fatherson, Fife singer Cammy Barnes, The Darkness, Dadi Freyr, Soap, Muddy Elephant, Beverley Knight, Germein, and Delta Goodrem.

The festival helped to support the local economy with the business improvement district Go Forth Stirling saying its footfall data showed a 51.1% increase in visitors.