Airports Hire Live Music Performances to Ease Passengers' Travel-Related Stress

To ease travelers’ moods and travel stress, various international airports have hired local musicians to perform live

Many airports around the world have hired local musicians to perform for passengers to help lighten their moods and ease travel stress, AP News reported. 

Earlier this year, London’s Heathrow Airport built a stage for emerging British performers for the first time — this initiative was so successful that the airport is aiming to do the same in summer 2025. 

Elsewhere, Nashville International Airport has five stages that host over 800 performances a year, from country musicians to jazz groups, and Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports have more than 100 live performances annually. In the Dominican Republic, Punta Cana International Airport greets passengers with live merengue music.

As reported in the South China Morning Post, the Hong Kong International Airport adopted a similar approach this Christmas hosting singers and dancers performing festive songs in the arrivals hall.

Additionally, airports are now curating their recorded playlists — the Detroit Metro Airport now plays Motown hits in a tunnel connecting its terminals, and Texas’s Austin-Bergstrom International Airport has a playlist of local artists compiled by an area radio station. 

Airports’ live music programs have also benefited musicians. When Colorado Springs Airport announced its live music program in March, more than 150 musicians applied. The airport now presents two two-hour performances a week.

“People’s anxiety levels are very high when they’re traveling,” the manager of the Music Program at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Tami Kuiken, told LancasterOnline. “The feedback that we started getting was that once they got through the checkpoint and they were greeted with music, all of a sudden their anxiety and stress levels dropped.”

“I get really sweet responses from people all the time, saying, ‘That was so soothing to be able to just sit and listen to music in between flights,’” added David James, a singer and guitarist. “So it feels like it’s especially therapeutic for people.”