Green light for festival is clear sign of brighter days ahead in Scotland
It was only a month ago but the doom and gloom over Scotland’s exit from lockdown has been well and truly dispersed since Nicola Sturgeon appeared to put the brakes on following Boris Johnson’s road to freedom.
The announcement that Scotland’s biggest music festival, TRNSMT, is going ahead this year is perhaps the biggest indicator yet that a return to normality may be possible to glimpse on the horizon.
It may still seem a far-fetched dream when most of the lockdown restrictions put in place over the winter are still with us, even as the clocks change this weekend.
But the organisers of the festivals have clearly had strong enough reassurance from the Scottish Government to give them confidence that the event will be able to go ahead this summer – albeit two months later than planned – if everything goes according to plan with the vaccine roll-out and keeping infection rates down.
And if TRNSMT is able to go ahead on a full-capacity basis in September then that offer hope to organisers of other events – and all those that rely on them – that the summer is not a lost cause.
It certainly felt like that in January and February when several festivals were called off and there was an ominous silence from others.
If the First Minister left many event organisers dismayed that she did not follow the Prime Minister in setting how events would return over the summer in late February, there was some surprise last week when she gave the same date of May 17, but with important caveats.
Only small-scale events will be able to return from that date and the fine detail of how they are to be defined is not expected until next month.
But the announcement of at least a start date was enough to spark a wave of optimism and a flurry of announcements from festivals, events and venues that had plans ready to roll out. Notably, they are scattered all over the country, raising the prospect of rural areas securing economic boosts just as important as the £20m boost Glasgow can expect from TRNSMT.