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Established in 2006, Big Guitar Weekend is unlike any other guitar festival in the world, bringing together community education and a concert series of international standard to Glasgow.

The Festival offers students of all ages and abilities the opportunity to spend one weekend devoted entirely to the guitar.  Learn all about the instrument through a series of workshops and tutorials taught by leading industry professionals; get involved and share ideas with guitarists across the stylistic and performance spectrum; and enjoy a variety of performances from stars from around the world, including Pavel Steidl, David Tanenbaum, and Paul Galbraith.  BGW 2011 also heralds the launch of the Scottish International Guitar Competition which is open to applicants from around the world and offers a host of prizes and opportunities.

The roots of BGW lie in the University of Strathclyde's 'GuitarFest'.  Established in 2001, the festival grew from the BA Applied Music Guitar Ensemble Concert and rapidly became an important event in Scotland, providing a stage for the best of Britain's emerging talent whilst creating a vital artistic and educational research link between the University of Strathclyde and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (((for(form ofo  . As it grew more successful the festival also began to attract top artists from both home and the United States.

 The principal aim of Big Guitar Weekend is to introduce the guitar to audiences across Scotland and promote Scotland to the rest of the world as a centre of excellence for the guitar and plucked string performance and teaching.