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music · Tuesday 21 July 2026 · 8:00pm 
Double Bill: Sun Mi Hong, Elina Duni & Rob Luft
At Hawk's Well Theatre · Temple Street, Sligo, Co. Sligo
At Hawk's Well Theatre · Temple Street, Sligo, Co. Sligo
Two of Europe’s most distinctive voices in contemporary jazz share a stage at Hawk’s Well Theatre for the opening night of the Sligo Jazz Festival. Sun Mi Hong leads off, followed by Elina Duni and Rob Luft - three musicians who each bring something genuinely unusual to the form. This is a concert for anyone who likes jazz that moves: emotional, rhythmically alive, and rooted in traditions well outside the standard American canon. Entry is free, which makes it an easy decision for first-timers and devoted fans alike.
Sun Mi Hong opens the bill. The South Korean drummer is based in Amsterdam and leads one of the most inventive quintet bands currently touring Europe. Her music sits across jazz, impressionism and Korean folk tradition, shifting between rooted grooves and sudden outbursts of energy. She won the Paul Acket Award in 2025 - one of the Netherlands’ most prestigious jazz prizes - and the Edison Award before that. Expect the unexpected: she is a composer as much as a drummer, and her sets tend to feel structured and surprising at the same time.
Elina Duni and Rob Luft follow. Duni was born in Tirana, Albania, grew up in Geneva after the fall of communism, and trained in the jazz programme at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern. Her voice draws on Balkan folk song and jazz phrasing in equal measure, and critics have long noted a quality that is hard to name but easy to feel - poetic, unhurried, precise. She has recorded a run of acclaimed albums on ECM Records since 2012, including “Lost Ships” and “A Time to Remember”. Luft, a London-based guitarist, has worked with her since 2017. Their rapport on stage is close and attentive - more conversation than performance.
Together the double bill covers a wide emotional range in a single evening.
Hawk’s Well Theatre is on Temple Street in the centre of Sligo town, within easy walking distance of the bus station on Lord Edward Street. Bus Eireann runs regular services from Dublin, Galway and Donegal into Sligo. If you are driving, there is car parking at Sligo Retail Park and on the streets immediately around the town centre. The theatre itself is compact and easy to find once you are in town.
The festival runs from 21 to 26 July, so there is good reason to stay a day or two and take in more of what the town has to offer - music sessions in the pubs, the river walk along the Garavogue, and easy access to Lough Gill and the Yeats country to the east. There is more to see in Sligo and across Co. Sligo.
Heading to Hawk's Well Theatre in Sligo? Sligo has plenty more to see. Read the Sligo area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.