TRSNMT festival is investigating the possibility of altering stage times for the 2026 edition, in order for attendees to watch Scotland’s World Cup games.
The hit Scottish festival will return to Glasgow Green for next year’s edition, and run from Friday June 19 to Sunday June 21. The first wave of artists for the 2026 festival were announced on November 7, led by Richard Ashcroft, Kasabian, Lewis Capaldi, and Wolf Alice.
On November 18, the Scotland men’s football team won in dramatic fashion against Denmark to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, hosted jointly between the USA, Canada, and Mexico next summer. It is the first time Scotland will be competing in the tournament since 1998.
There is a potential clash between one of the festival’s headline slots and Scotland’s second group game against Morocco on June 19. According to a report by the BBC, a headliner would typically play from 9:30pm – 11pm. The match with Morocco begins at 11pm, meaning there may be some overlap between that day’s headliner, Richard Ashcroft, and the game’s kick-off.
DF Concerts’ Geoff Ellis, the festival director, told BBC News: “Obviously it’s very early days as the World Cup and TRNSMT are still over six months away. As you would expect there is flexibility in timings and we will be ensuring that music fans can enjoy the TRNSMT line up as well as watching Scotland’s second game on the road to bringing the World Cup home to the birthplace of football.”
Sources have told the outlet that promoters are interested in showing the game at Glasgow Green once the day’s acts had finished.
The success of UK teams at international football tournaments has seen some clash with summer music festivals, with Glastonbury contending with numerous England games over the years.
In 2014, festival organiser Emily Eavis has said that they couldn’t show that year’s World Cup matches because it wasn’t practical, and that the event is about music, not football.
Last summer, the Worthy Farm event repeated its decision for the 2024 European Championships.
England’s men’s team faced Slovakia in the round of 16 on the Sunday of that year’s festival, with festival-goers reportedly going to extreme lengths to catch the action.
