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music · Sunday 26 July 2026 · 12:00pm 
SJP BIG BASH
At Hawk's Well Theatre · Temple Street, Sligo, Co. Sligo
At Hawk's Well Theatre · Temple Street, Sligo, Co. Sligo
The SJP Big Bash is the closing celebration of the Sligo Jazz Festival, and it lands at noon on Sunday 26 July 2026 - free, inside the auditorium of Hawk’s Well Theatre for the first time in the festival’s history. This is the week made whole: after five days of workshops, jam sessions, and evening concerts, the town’s students, tutors, and visiting musicians all converge for one exuberant finale. If you have never seen jazz played this way - generously, collectively, with over 130 players of every age and nationality sharing a stage - this is a fine morning to show up.
The Sligo Jazz Project summer school draws musicians from all over Europe and beyond, from teenagers attending their first jazz workshop to seasoned players returning year after year. The Big Bash pools them together into a single high-energy midday performance, structured less like a conventional concert and more like a demonstration of everything the week has built. Past editions have run long and loud, with the energy of a session that has been waiting all week to happen. Holding it inside Hawk’s Well Theatre this year gives the bash a proper stage and proper sound - the theatre’s 340-seat auditorium is purpose-built for performance and has hosted everything from opera to stand-up since it opened in 1982 as the first purpose-built theatre in rural Ireland.
Hawk’s Well Theatre sits on Temple Street in Sligo town centre, within easy walking distance of the bus and rail stations. Bus Eireann serves Sligo from Dublin, Galway, and Derry; the journey from Dublin on the X30 takes around two and a half hours. Sligo MacDiarmada train station is roughly ten minutes on foot from the theatre. If you are driving, the town has several car parks close to the centre - the Sligo City Car Park on Lord Edward Street is a short walk away. Sunday midday parking is generally straightforward, but the town fills up during festival week so arriving a little early is sensible.
Sligo is Yeats country and wears it well - the poet’s grave is at Drumcliffe a few kilometres north, and the Sligo County Museum holds a dedicated Yeats room. The town itself has good cafes and a compact riverside centre worth an hour or two before or after the gig. 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.