T In The Park (Scotland)

...had another fabulous weekend at T in the Park. In this review, I shall endeavour to persuade you that T is the greatest festival in Scotland & is 2nd only to Glastonbury in the UK's top festivals!

History
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T in the Park was a joint venture by DF Concerts & Tennants Lager to bring a new, large scale, multi stage music event to the Scottish music calendar. The first T in the Park took ...
...part of the festival, right? T in the Park are renowned for not only bringing the top bands of the moment to Scotland but also bringing us legendary headliners & new up & coming talent! Over the last 12 years, they've brought us (in no particular order) Foo Fighters, Green Day, Coldplay, Oasis, Blur, Stereophonics, Manic Street Preachers, Ian Brown, James Brown, Happy Mondays, Black Grape, Cypress Hill, Snoop Dogg, A Tribe Called Quest, Black Eyed ... more

The Great British festival season is upon us & I had another fabulous weekend at T in the Park. In this review, I shall endeavour to persuade you that T is the greatest festival in Scotland & is 2nd only to Glastonbury in the UK's top festivals!

History
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T in the Park was a joint venture by DF Concerts & Tennants Lager to bring a new, large scale, multi stage music event to the Scottish music calendar. The first T in the Park took place in July 1994 at Strathclyde Country Park in Glasgow and although from the musical perspective it was a huge success, financially it wasn't. However, it whetted the appetite of the 17,000 music fans that attended each day and the number of tickets sold has increased every year to the whopping 80,000 each day planned for 2006.

Over the years, the site grew in size, with the NME Stage, Slam Tent, The X Tent and the T-Break Stage (for unsigned bands) being added to the original Main Stage & King Tuts Tent. In 1997 the festival moved to its current location of Balado, by Kinross. This location, right in the heart of Scotland, made it much more accessible to the remote parts of the country & the major cities alike.

Despite the large crowds that descend upon Balado each year, the event enjoys an extremely warm and positive reception from the local council and surrounding communities and festivalgoers flock from as far away as America to get a little slice of T.

Bands & Stages
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Well…it's the most important part of the festival, right? T in the Park are renowned for not only bringing the top bands of the moment to Scotland but also bringing us legendary headliners & new up & coming talent! Over the last 12 years, they've brought us (in no particular order) Foo Fighters, Green Day, Coldplay, Oasis, Blur, Stereophonics, Manic Street Preachers, Ian Brown, James Brown, Happy Mondays, Black Grape, Cypress Hill, Snoop Dogg, A Tribe Called Quest, Black Eyed Peas, Fun Lovin Criminals, Travis, Faithless, Placebo, Groove Armada, Chemical Brothers, Orbital, Beck, Toploader, Belle & Sebastian, Beta Band, David Bowie (although he unfortunately fell ill), The Proclaimers, The Verve, The Strokes, The Killers, The Charlatans, Alanis Morrisette, Keanu Reeves, The Beautiful South, Robbie Williams, Joss Stone, Iggy Pop, Macy Gray & hundreds & hundreds more. The point of that list was really just to emphasise the big names that T in the Park pulls.

These days there are 7 stages & tents, showcasing some of the best bands, singers & DJ's in the world. We have the Main Stage where your top quality bands play with a touch of pop in the afternoon, The NME Stage & King Tuts Tent also showcase a lot of up & coming talent & also more established bands as headliners. The Slam Tent is where all the quality dance acts play and the X Tent & Futures stage is where you'll find the up & coming new talent.

Unsigned bands also get the chance to play at the T-Break Tent where, at the first T in '94, an unknown band called Glass Onion played, and who later changed their name to Travis. Its not surprising that Travis are the band who have played at T in the Park most - a whopping 5 times!

So no matter what your musical preference, there will always be something at T to suit your fancy. And if not, why not try the Ceilidh Tent?

Camping
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The second most important part of the festival, right? Well, it may be for some, but my camping days are long gone! In 1994, 17,000 people attended T and 5% of them camped. This year (2005), 69,000 people attended and a massive 85% of those camped making it easily the largest campsite in Scotland.

For many hardened festival goers looking for the full on experience, the fun starts on Friday, when they pitch their tent, meet the neighbours & kick back with a beer, looking forward to fun ahead. The campsite has had to move with the times and over the years has added a fun fair, a food village, bars & entertainment; which includes a Disco Bus and a 24 hour footie pitch.

Camping at T in the Park is always going to be a bit different to your average weekend away in the country. You're not supposed to take a campfire, but many people use disposable barbeque for an alternative to greasy overpriced breakfast rolls. You'll never hear a Mexican wave shout up at Braemar. And it will probably be the only time in your life you'll actually talk to a Buckfast swilling Chav.

All in all, the camping experience is a good one & theres a lot of camaraderie within the campsite. Just don't expect a decent sleep, and don't leave anything of value in your tent. T is one of the safest festivals but there are still some bad people out there who take pleasure in spoiling it for others.

Beer & Food
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T in the Park is run in conjunction with Tennants Lager. Therefore, within the arena the only lager they serve is Tennants. You can also purchase pints of Cider (which were Blackthorn I think, but I cant quite remember…they tasted good anyway!) glasses of red or white wine, which I shall discourage you from drinking because they are disgusting! The Bacardi Breezer tent also sells Breezers & Bacardi drinks such as rum & cranberry or mojitos.

T in the Park uses a beer token system. This means that rather than queuing at the bar for drinks & handing over money. You simply purchase tokens at the start of the day which you then hand over in exchange for drinks at one of the many bars. I like this & think it works, other people hate it. I personally feel that it makes a huge difference to the queues at the bars & I remember it when it was a cash bar. The queues were enormous & you could easily wait for an hour to get a drink. This way, the longest you really have to wait is 10 minutes at the bar and if you arrive at the arena sharpish, you don't have to queue for tokens at all.

Food at T in the Park doesn't always have to be greasy burgers & hot dogs. There's a plethora of interesting food stands just waiting to be sampled. From curry at the Pataks van to Thai Noodles, Fajitas, Steak Sandwiches, Posh Pies, a whole range of veggie foods including Tofu Burgers, pitta bread with goodness salad (thats right, "Goodness Salad"), Falafals and hummous! And as if that's not enough to get your taste buds a tingling, there's the milkshakes, smoothies, fresh doughnuts, crepes & muffins!

The food doesn't come cheap though, at £2 for a bottle of fizzy pop, £4-5 for a burger and £6 for the nicer foods, you will spend a fortune!

Things to do
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So you're not into the bands that are on at the moment, what else is there to do? Well, there's the Ceilidh tent for a start where you can dance to your hearts content to some fab traditional Scottish bands - or just watch other people dancing which really can be a laugh!

There's the marketplace where you can purchase some memorabilia from the weekend, everything from clothing, posters & inflatable chairs to room oudoriser and other herbal highs, henna tattoos, real tattoos and even oxygen!

The fun fair is always, erm, fun. Just make sure you can handle this after several pints of lager & a chicken jalfrezi! The funfair brings lots of crazy rides to the festival like dodgems, waltzers, kamakazi, bungee ball (whish I shall never ever ever go on again) and the Big Wheel. The Big Wheel is quite easily the best ride of the festival. Up you go with some friends and watch all the tiny people below, it really does give you the most tremendous view of the site & give you an idea of how huge it is! The fair rides can be expensive however as all prices are inflated at festivals.

Toilets
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It just comes part & parcel with the festival vibe. The toilets are minging. And there are never enough. You'll find approx 3 sets of toilets around the arena & they quietest are always the ones beside the Slam tent! Men are fine to use the urinals but they queues for the ladies can take an age, especially if you're needing desperately. You will find that a lot of girls at these events cant wait & would rather find a quiet spot & face the embarrassment of people seeing them pee, rather than wait for an hour! Each to their own I think!

Atmosphere
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Everyone knows us Scots know how to party! We put on some of the greatest parties in the world & this one is no let down. The punters are there to have a good time & it has one of the lowest arrest counts for a UK festival. I have spoken to many an Englishman or Irishman at T who prefer T in the Park to some of their home festivals because of the atmosphere, you make new friends everywhere you go & everyone is friendly! Just to reiterate this, my boyfriend lost his mobile on the Saturday & a nice guy actually text me to say that he found it & would meet us on the Sunday to return it! What a lovely guy!
 

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