Venue has to scrap gigs after tent plan refused
A Highland Perthshire live music venue has had to cancel the majority of its summer events programme after it was turned down for a planning extension for its marquee.
Food in the Park (FITP) has been operating as a bar, restaurant and gig venue for tourists in Blair Atholl, but on Tuesday 21, FITP got the bad news that their bid to put up the marquee again this summer had been squashed.
A number of local objections had been logged and, on the basis of noise and loss of amenity because their marquee is sited close to listed buildings, Perth and Kinross planning department turned down its application to put the tent up for another two summer seasons.
The fast food outlet in Blair Atholl Country Life Museum car park reopens on March 27, but the return of its marquee, in which it has a stage and a craft beer bar, is in serious jeopardy.
Bands like Big Country, Dougie Maclean and Tidelines have played to large crowds at Food in the Park since it first applied to host live music from its site near Blair Castle’s caravan park in 2016. And this summer, there was to be a big list of bands booked to entertain.
But co-owners Sally Judd and partner David Mckenzie have contacted ticket holders to explain they now have to cancel all but three gigs.
On Facebook the couple explained: “Unfortunately we have some sad news.
“It has always been our intention to build a permanent building to house the live music venture. So up until now we have been operating under the temporary planning permission that was granted for the marquee back in 2016, but now that permission has expired.
“Four months ago we put in a planning application to extend the temporary planning permission for the marquee for a further two years whilst we continued to design and agree the details around building a permanent, suitable building.
“But we have just found out that the permission has not been granted.
“Essentially we may not have a live music venue for 2020 whilst we try to resolve the situation. So we have had to come to the very difficult decision of cancelling most of our live music gigs already booked at Food in the Park for 2020.”
Sally Judd continued, apologising to punters who had already snapped up tickets.
“We are obviously extremely sorry for this decision,” she said.
“This is obviously a huge shock for us and one that leaves us spinning and frustrated.
“I hope you will understand our situation and accept our apologies for any inconvenience that this causes you.”
Sally told the PA: “We’ve lost a great deal of money from cancelling the acts we had booked.
“We also had secured singersongwriter, Cameron Barnes. He was a huge catch, but that is likely to be lost if we can’t find somewhere to hold that.
“Nearly 12,000 people have read the Facebook post I put up last week.
“We’ve had over 150 comments of support since posting the news on Facebook - no comments of objection whatsoever. That far outweighs the objections on the planning portal.
“Among the comments were people suggesting they’d be cancelling their bookings in the caravan parks, saying they are not coming to the area now if our facility is no longer available.”
Three band bookings for the height of the holiday season - Toploader, Los Pacaminos’ featuring Paul Young and Skerryvore - will still play in Blair Atholl, but at the village hall.
Sally confirmed FITP plans to also run the annual Blair Atholl Scottish Craft Beer Festival in
September.
Sally revealed that no committee was used in the decision by PKC: “There was just one planning officer. We will apply for a review.
“The planning application we put in just now was no different to the one previously given the green light by the council in 2016.
“The question of the live music being too loud has been addressed by a detailed Noise Impact Assessment which was requested by the council, the conclusion of which was that the noise issue could be mitigated by at least two measures, which we were prepared to undertake, but this opportunity has not been afforded to us.”