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music · Saturday 25 July 2026 · 2:00pm 
Gareth Lockrane Octet
At Hawk's Well Theatre · Temple Street, Sligo, Co. Sligo
At Hawk's Well Theatre · Temple Street, Sligo, Co. Sligo
One of Britain’s most distinctive jazz voices comes to Sligo for an afternoon performance that sits at the heart of the annual Sligo Jazz Festival. Gareth Lockrane is widely regarded as the leading jazz flautist in Britain - a musician who first picked up the flute at ten, discovered jazz at fourteen, and went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music before building a career that has taken him to Ronnie Scott’s and beyond. His Octet is an eight-piece ensemble, and hearing jazz at this scale, played by musicians at this level, in a 340-seat theatre rather than a vast outdoor stage, makes for a genuinely close and absorbing afternoon.
Gareth Lockrane’s playing draws on the bebop and mainstream jazz traditions of the 1960s, filtered through his own voice on flute, piccolo, alto and bass flutes. The Octet format gives him room to work with layered ensemble textures that a smaller group cannot manage - there is real weight and colour when eight players lock in together. His recording work has been recognised at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, and his ensemble Grooveyard won Best European Jazz Group at the Granada Jazz Festival. This is not background music: it rewards close listening. The performance takes place at 2pm on Saturday 25 July as part of the festival’s closing weekend, when Sligo town is alive with jazz from morning until late across multiple venues. The Hawk’s Well itself is an intimate, comfortable auditorium - the first purpose-built theatre west of the Shannon, opened in 1982 and refurbished since - so even a seat at the back puts you close to the stage.
Sligo is well served by road from Dublin (roughly two and a half hours on the N4/M4), from Galway (around an hour and a half on the N17), and from Belfast (around two hours via Enniskillen). Bus Eireann runs regular services from Dublin Busaras and from Galway, with the Sligo Bus Station a short walk from the town centre. Irish Rail operates the Dublin Heuston to Sligo line, with the railway station about ten minutes on foot from Hawk’s Well. Temple Street is in the town centre; on-street parking is available nearby, and there are car parks on Connolly Street and at Wine Street a short walk away.
The Jazz Festival fills the whole town across its final weekend, with free sessions spilling out of pubs and outdoor stages around the same dates - arriving early gives you a full day of it. Sligo also has the Yeats Building, the Model arts centre, and easy access to Strandhill beach and Knocknarea to the west. 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.