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Glasgow's busy nightlife scene is impressive and varied. Bars and pubs often close at midnight on weekends, but nightclubs often stay open until 3 or 4 am. Traditional ceilidh (a mix of country dancing, music, and song; pronounced kay-lee) is not as popular with locals as it used to be (except at weddings), but you can still find it at many more tourist-oriented establishments.
Glasgow's pubs were once hangouts for serious drinkers who demanded few comforts. Today many of these gritty establishments have been transformed into trendy cocktail bars or cavernous spaces with video monitors, though a few traditional bars survive. Bars and pubs vary according to location; many in the City Centre cater to business types, while those in the West End and Finnieston draw in the younger crowd.
As elsewhere in Britain, electronic music—from house to techno to drum and bass—is par for the course in Glasgow's dance clubs. Much of the scene revolves around the City Centre, as a late-night walk down Sauchiehall Street on Friday or Saturday will reveal.
As the name suggests, this enormous and endlessly flexible space occupies the railway arches beneath Glasgow Central station. Most nights it's a popular music venue, but on weekends it becomes a street food market called Platform. Despite its appearance, this industrial space and its glass roof can be a surprisingly intimate place to see a show.
The small downstairs music venue gets crowded quickly when bands play Sunday to Thursday night, but that only adds to the electric atmosphere at Stereo. There's also a hopping nightclub where DJs spin on Friday and Saturday nights until the wee hours of the morning. Upstairs, the café-bar serves tasty vegan food and organic drinks.
This atmospheric underground venue has staged cutting-edge music events since its jazz club days in the '50s. Legendary favorites like Saturday's SubCulture (House) and Sunday's Optimo (a truly eclectic mix for musical hedonists) pack in friendly and sweaty crowds on its large dance floor. Open since the 1980s as a nightclub, it is the longest running underground dance club in the world.
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