Music festival shows the way

Music lovers converged on an Aberdeenshire village to attend a night of music under the stars.

After months of planning, a new music festival entertained crowds in Garioch, as part of celebrations recognising 25 years of the Newmachar Hotel under the ownership of Linda and Grant Wright.

The Feel Good Festival, which was staged at the hotel, attracted more than 200 spectators and organisers.

Co-creator of the events team and bar manager at the hotel, Andrew Hutcheon, launched the Feel Good concept earlier this year with close friend Greig Chapman.

Mr Hutcheon said: “Saturday’s event was a great success. It was really busy and all the bands were fantastic, even though the weather let us down a little. Myself and Greig

“Hopefully we’ll be able to fund bigger and better events”

decided a few months ago that we should do something exciting for the village. There isn’t a lot that happens in Newmachar, so we wanted to start organising things.

“It started as an idea to do a small acoustic event, and it really just grew from there, especially with it being the hotel’s 25th anniversary – so it all tied in well together.”

The festival featured acts including The Killerz, Black Eyed Peaz and Little Chix.

Mr Hutcheon added: “We definitely want to continue organising events like this and hopefully we’ll be able to extend some of our licences and find a bigger venue.

“And hopefully, over time, we’ll be able to fund bigger and better events. We have a few things coming up, but we’re going to be taking a few weeks tidying up from the weekend.”