The 5 Best Airports In America For Live Music

Shoeless security checks, long lines, flight delays, last-minute gate changes. Travelers mostly hate airports — even the best airports in North America – for plenty of reasons. To promote a more enjoyable time in the terminal or around the airport — even when experiencing the indignity of the modern airport experience — many airports are activating the entrancing power of live music to make air travel a much more pleasant experience.

It's charming to be greeted by holiday live music programming from America's most stress-free airport in Sacramento, California, or to enjoy a serenade by high school choirs while you're waiting at baggage claim at the peaceful John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California. But these smaller airports aren't the only ones embracing live music between flights. In fact, America's most well-connected airport, Chicago O'Hare, has a holiday music program that puts travelers facing delays in more festive spirits during one of the most anxiety-inducing times of the year. In compiling our list of the best American airports for live music, we looked for diversity, frequency, and originality. These airports know that people hate air travel almost as much as they love music — and we're here to celebrate that.

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) is one of the highest-ranking airports in North America, according to repeated annual awards by the Airports Council International. So you might not be surprised that it is home to 1,000 musical performances per year that highlight the diversity of the local arts scene of Minnesota's Twin Cities. As part of its Arts@MSP initiative, which also brings art installations, rotating exhibits, and films to the terminals, 19 local artists are part of a weekly roster of performances that happen on the terminal side of security checkpoints at Terminals 1 and 2. In Terminal 1, the North Mall contains a sound-ready instrumental performance space as well as a Steinway concert grand piano. A second instrumental space is located on the South Mall. In Terminal 2, the performance space includes a Kawai baby grand piano. It is located near Gate H12.

Musicians, who go through an application process, must have a strong connection to the Minneapolis-St. Paul arts scene. As Arts@MSP is committed to performer and performance diversity, the lineup often features artists with disabilities or neurodiversity, in addition to a wide range of musical styles. Musicians usually agree to perform four times a month at the airport. Instrumental styles on the piano, like classical, jazz, contemporary, and gospel can make for a pleasant layover on any day of the week. More diverse styles, from folksy guitar singer-songwriters to xylophone players, accordionists, and harpists, also offer their own music styles and interpretations to the buzzy atmosphere.

It's hard to beat the place with the nickname "Music City" when it comes to live music, even in an airport. According to The Tennessean, the nickname took hold when Queen Victoria was treated to a wildly popular traveling gospel choir from Nashville's Fisk University, the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Today, Nashville International Airport brings the Opry experience to transit passengers with daily live music at Ole Red, a restaurant and bar known locally for discovering new talent.

The venue in Terminal C hosts three performers daily, with music ongoing from 8:30 a.m. until 9.30 p.m., making it a consistent place to hear tunes when you've got a long layover or delayed flight. The lineup of country and blues performers, up-and-comers from Music City, is curated by the same music director that operates Ole Red's other Nashville locations. The co-owner of Ole Red, country music superstar Blake Shelton, has been known to make appearances himself at some of the venues, including the Nashville airport one. Next time you're flying into or out of Nashville, pop into Ole Red and see if you can't spot a singer from "The Voice" ... or maybe Shelton himself. You could even embark on a cross-country Southwestern music road trip and plan Nashville International Airport at an essential final stop before flying home.

Houston's robust terminal music program, Harmony in the Air, boasts a stable of more than 75 musicians across two different airports, making it one of the most wide-reaching live music airport programs. The daily lineup includes classically trained concert musicians in duos, trios, and quartets playing jazz, classical, country western, rock, bossa nova, flamenco, calypso, and chamber music; a solo harpist and pop performers round out the schedule.

Performances at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) take place every weekday in the Terminal A Connector Gallery, and additionally on Fridays in United Airlines Terminal C, always from 12 to 3 p.m. Additional locations are in the works for the international terminal, Terminal D, as well as Terminal E. At the city's secondary airport, William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), performances take place daily at the Central Concourse Rotunda. While most showtimes are from 12 until 3 p.m., there is an occasional evening performance from 4 until 7 p.m.

For venue variety, nothing beats the well-known weirdness of Austin, Texas. Not only is it an underrated vacation spot for film lovers, but the city is even more famed for its Austin City Limits and South by Southwest music festivals, which both feed its reputation as the "Live Music Capital of the World." So it's no surprise that waiting for your gate to open at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) is also a little like being at a music festival, with pubs and restaurants throughout the terminal hosting bands at a variety of stages on weekdays.

Shows are staggered through the afternoon Monday through Friday, all across the terminal. Catch some late-morning tunes at Haymaker near Gate 24 from 11:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m., or listen to lunchtime jams at Vino Volo (Gate 6) from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Other venues include Hut's (Gate 14) and Annie's (Gate 27), which host bands from 1 to 3 p.m., while 24 Diner (Gate 11) and Taco Deli (Gate 23) stagger the afternoons by starting their shows at 1:15, ending at 3:15 p.m. At Gate 19, Saxon Pub's Asleep at the Wheel Stage, the AUS main stage, hosts shows from 3 to 5 p.m., with Austin City Market (Gate 12) rounding out the lineup from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

What better way to end an airport music tour than by visiting the West Coast home of alternative culture and music? San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is San Francisco's beloved and eclectic airport. It contains branches of beloved local restaurants; an actual museum with student work from local art schools, a photo gallery, murals, and a pre-security video installation space; and even a trendy yoga room. Wall Street Journal even named SFO the "best large airport" in America in 2022.

To add to the range of artistic and social offerings at the airport is the monthly themed music series, "SFO Celebrates." Music and performances are themed around neighborhood and cultural events in the city, like Lunar New Year, Black History Month, Día de los Muertos, the annual Cherry Blossom Festival, Pride, Carnaval, Fleetweek, and other celebrations that define life in the city. Music events are usually at Terminals 1 through 3, which you can navigate between via the AirTrain Red Line that connects the whole airport.

To arrive at our final list, we have sifted through airport music programs far and wide. Referencing traveler reviews, local newspaper articles, and the most up-to-date program information on airport websites, we tried to include more than just airports that have a piano in a corner. We wanted to include places where travelers are most likely to encounter music from professional artists and where restaurants and bars offer venues to performers.

How frequently musicians perform, based on airport schedules and reviews, was a big factor in choosing the best, but we also looked at the programs to see how well they represented the city in question. Music programs that gave airport visitors an experience of their cities and native music scenes rated high on our list, as well as the diversity of styles and performances.