Kíla

Kíla are playing The Music Room at the Liverpool Philharmonic on Friday 16 October, their first Liverpool show in eight years. They're a seven-piece collective from Dublin who've spent more than three decades as one of Ireland's best-kept secrets and greatest musical forces, a band that defies genre and rewires tradition. It's a long time since they last played the city, so this is their first return to a Liverpool stage since 2018.

Their sound is rooted in the ancient pulse of Irish folk — uilleann pipes, fiddle, bodhrán and bones — but it's propelled by djembe, brass, electric guitar and a restless, world-hungry imagination. They've played some of the world's most legendary stages and won an IFTA award for their film scores for Cartoon Saloon's Oscar-nominated trilogy: The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea and Wolfwalkers.

The concert is part of the 2026 Liverpool Irish Festival, the UK's largest Irish arts and culture-led festival, which runs across ten days from 15 to 25 October. This year's theme is 'I Am Here', a declaration of presence rooted in the story of the 1.8 million Irish Famine poor who entered Liverpool through Clarence Dock between 1845 and 1853. Kíla's set falls early in that ten-day run, on the second day of the festival.

Tickets are £32, or £30 for concessions, and you book them online. The show starts at 8pm at The Music Room, inside the Liverpool Philharmonic.