Excitement building ahead of Carnival 56

DEMAND: People from all over the globe will descend on Dundee for summer concerts

Fans from as far away as Frankfurt have snapped up tickets ahead of the biggest music festival to be held in Dundee in over a decade.

Carnival 56, which takes place over two days in August in the city’s Camperdown park, will feature some of the biggest names in dance music with artists such Mark Ronson, Hot Chip and Basement Jaxx set to perform.

More than 100 bands and DJs will perform at the event with other big names including Rudimental and Clean Bandit.

And a host of Dundee bands, such as Sinderins, The Law and Fat Goth, will also entertain fans.

Festival director Craig Blyth said preparations are going according to plan and ticket sales have been “very strong”.

“Planning for Carnival 56 is going extremely well,” he said.

“We are continuing to develop the working plans for the event along with Dundee City Council and partners around the table to guarantee fans one of the highlights of their summer.

“We got off to a fantastic start and the buzz around the festival continues to gather momentum.

“This is being reflected in the very strong ticket sales so far, increasingly with music lovers coming from Scotland’s north-east and central belt as well as north east England.

“We are also experiencing good sales from Manchester, Birmingham, London, Ireland, and even Germany.”

The festival’s production manager, Steve Reynolds, said the site design is almost complete with a host of live stages, entertainment, street food and bars set to be incorporated.

He said: “Planning has been going really well. The stakeholders (police, council and parks) and community have been very supportive.

“We’re now moving on to look at the creative look and feel of the show and those meetings are continuing over the next few weeks.

“We’ll be testing contingency plans in June with the police and council along with our security company G4S and safety company MRL. This will help support a safe and enjoyable event for people to attend.”

The festival will take place on the weekend of August 12 and 13.

We got off to a fantastic start and the buzz around the festival continues to gather momentum. CRAIG BLYTH FESTIVAL DIRECTOR

Mark Ronson, above, Hot Chip, below left, and Basement Jaxx, bottom right, will perform at the summer event.