T break decision divides opinion

Blow to business, but less chance of trouble

Community figureheads have said feelings are mixed over the decision not to hold the T in the Park music festival next year.

DF Concerts, promoters of Scotland’s largest music festival, announced late last week, that the event would not be held on Strathallan Castle Estate near Auchterarder next year.

It means 2017 will be the first time that Perth and Kinross hasn’t hosted the iconic bash – which brought some of the most famous names in world music and tens of thousands of fans to the area – since 1997, when it first moved to Balado airfield near Kinross.

Malcolm Best, chairman of Auchterarder and District Community Council, said: “T in the Park’s decision is a great shame and will have a significant adverse impact on local businesses.

“It is true that some people in the area did not welcome the festival’s move to Strathallan but it’s also true that many did. We would like to think that TITP will return in 2018.”

Crieff Community Council chair Craig Finlay commented: “While the news of DF Concerts relocating the festival to Glasgow in 2017 will be bad news for local businesses, it will give organisers more time to try to iron out problems associated with roads infrastructure and event planning.

“Personally, I feel a concert which brings weekly newspaper reports of drug dealers being brought to trial for supply of Class A drugs is probably not one we want on our doorstep anyway.”

Muthill and Tullibardine Community Council chairman David Woods said: “I think the majority of the Muthill and Tullibardine community are sorry to see T in the Park go. There is a small proportion of the community that are absolutely delighted, and that is fair enough.

“I think it is a shame for the small businesses that will miss the income – such as the petrol station, local shops and even bed and breakfasts, because it was a guaranteed income at that time of year, especially during the ‘makeup and break-up’ periods.

“We were also just starting to reap the benefits — from the community fund which had begun filtering through, and from the Round Table, which distributed a lot of money as a result of T in the Park.

“The festival was helping the community financially. Now that’s all gone — and I feel that’s a shame.”

The T in the Park Community Trust Fund was set up to benefit the areas around the festival site with the inaugural festival seeing Foundation Scotland manage the distribution of £19,000.

This year’s festival generated £12,500 for the fund, which solely benefits community groups and small local charities, which can apply for between £250 and £2000.

During T in the Park’s reign at Balado, a total of £385,450 was contributed to the Kinross-shire fund.

Crieff Round Table, which played a major role at the festival in terms of grassroots organisation, is hoping the event will return.

Vice-chairman Gregor Elliott said: “Crieff Round Table have been closely involved with T in the Park since 2014, when the decision was taken to move to Strathallan Estate.

“This year we recruited and fielded over 150 local volunteers who, in exchange for working two shifts, were given free weekend camping tickets for the event.

“Our volunteers helped with tasks such as queue management in the pamper areas, both customer service and onsite transport for disabled festival goers and age screening to ensure lost young people could be safely reunited with a responsible adult. “In return for co-ordinating volunteers, Round Table earn a generous fee from DF Concerts.

“Our work at T in the Park 2015 allowed us to distribute £7500 among local groups and charities. We earned even more this year, which will be distributed in early 2017.

“In addition, last year with the help of Round Table, DF Concerts donated money to every school in the Strathearn to be used towards musical instruments for all pupils.

“We have been heartened by the widespread support of Crieff Round Table from local volunteers, both young and old, many of whom would not have dreamed of attending a music festival had they not answered our call.

“We are very disappointed that T in the Park is taking a break but are optimistic that a return can be made in 2018. We look forward to working with DF Concerts in the future to make the event as great and successful as it has been in the past.”

A spokesperson for the Strathallan T Action Group (STAG) — which raised a series of environmental and logistical concerns in relation to the site of the festival for the last two years — summed up the group’s feelings.

In a statement, they said: “We have said from the outset that the site is, for a whole host of reasons, not suitable, and we stand by that.

“We are intrigued by DF Concerts’ suggestion that — following the year off — a future event at Strathallan might go ahead with less regulation and oversight.

“The evidence seems to us to point in the opposite direction, and we do not see how any special treatment from the authorities regarding planning conditions could be justified.”

Festival promoters DF Concerts announced the decision to “take a break” late last week, saying the move from Balado to Strathallan was done “against our will” and constraints relating to the land near Auchterarder ultimately became “unworkable”.

One of these related to the need to acquire full planning consent from Perth and Kinross Council at relatively short notice owing to the presence of an osprey nest in the vicinity of the site.

Aedán Smith, head of planning for RSPB Scotland, said: “It is disappointing that T in the Park will not be taking place in 2017.

“RSPB Scotland worked hard to help ensure that the event could go ahead in 2015 and 2016, while minimising the impacts the festival would have on the wildlife that the site had been home to for many years.

“The fact that the osprey nest that had been on the site for a number of years was able to continue to be successful, and fledge chicks, illustrates how nature and development can often successfully coexist where there is a willingness on all sides to carry out activities responsibly.

“However, it has become clear that there are a wide range of other challenges to running the huge event that T in the Park has become at the Strathallan site.

“We hope these can be resolved and look forward to working with DF concerts and T in the Park in future wherever opportunities arise.”

The T in the Park spokesperson concluded: “We now need to take stock and take a year out to try to resolve the issues so that we can once again deliver the kind of camping festival you are used to and deserve.”

A wide range of other challenges to running the event at the Strathallan site