I have a confession to make.

I've been covering T in the Park for more than a decade. I've been backstage, frontstage, on the stage. I've been there when they've been building the stage, and in the days when you didn't need a road map to find the staff car park. But I've never experienced what many people regard as the central experience of T in the Park - camping.

This week, I took matters - and my sleeping bag - into my own hands and joined the 20,000 people who set up camp there more than 24 hours before a band even takes to the stage.

By half past five, the campsite is heaving, mostly young people, lugging crates of lager up the hill behind them, but there's a good scattering of veteran concert goers. The atmosphere is high spirited, and noisy but not intimidating. Many of the groups know each other and have already set up camps within camps.

There's an obviously increased security presence, following last year's stabbing of a fan in the campsite. Fans seem pragmatic.

"It could have happened in any city on a Saturday night," says Dave, who's here with his daughter and her boyfriend.

"But because there are so many paramedics on hand, they were able to react very quickly. I think that's what makes the difference."

Chief Supt Craig Suttie of Tayside Police agrees. "Compared to a lot of Scottish towns on a Saturday night, this has a low crime rate. Last year's incident was a terrible one, but hopefully an isolated one. This year, it's about reassuring people, letting them know we're all around."

Police officers patrolling the site are part of a 2,500 strong team which includes everyone from stewards to welfare officers. Above them, the area is monitored by cameras - including the infra-red ones on the hot air balloon "blimp".

The strategy seems to be to avert problems before they happen.
A drunken boy, roaming the site isn't arrested. He's escorted back to his tent, given water and urged to sleep it off.

It's a relatively quiet start - the real challenge comes when the remaining 45,000 campers arrive, augmented on the day by a further 20,000 non campers.

Speaking of non campers - my night under canvas at T was noisy, cold but uneventful. The cameraderie of the campsite began to wear off around 2am, as did my usual love of the music of Johnny Cash - just not played in the wee small hours.

And reader, I cheated. My tent - a teepee large enough to accomodate a family of five - was already up when i got there, the air bed full of air, and a proper shower and toilet block just a hundred yards away.

After 10 years of waiting, some experiences just can't be rushed.

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So farewell Michael Jackson.

Sad that he'll be remembered by a whole generation for his increasingly bizarre behaviour and not for the thrill of Thriller. (I can still recall the excitement of catching the full 14-minute video on television in the days before video recorders, DVD or YouTube, when you had to be tuned in at just the right moment.)

It's hard to align the Jackson of those groundbreaking video performances with the shambolic masked figure of latter years - although even I'm struggling to understand why his death merited both Newsnight and Newsnight Review.

Like a lot of Scots of a certain age, I saw him at Glasgow Green when he performed there in 1992.

Last performance

Again, a spectacularly theatrical show in the days when everyone else was still plodding through stadium rock gigs, it began with Jackson springing from a trapdoor onto stage in a storm of fireworks and ended with a stuntman wearing a jetpack flying over the crowd.

It was his first Scottish concert in almost two decades - he'd last appeared in Glasgow as part of the Jackson Five in 1977 and, though we didn't realise at the time, also his last performance in Scotland.

Coming just two years after Glasgow 1990, you'd think people would be used to cultural extravaganza but as one of the first gigs on the green, it also sparked a rash of complaints from locals about the noise and disruption who urged the city council not to allow him to return.

His last musical performance, perhaps, but not his last appearance.

Bizarre expedition

He did come back in 1997 for a bizarre househunting expedition which involved a heavily disguised Jackson and his entourage driving across Scotland, hotly pursued by the press.

Now the waiting begins for thousands of fans who bought tickets for the 50 gigs due to take place this summer at the 02 arena in London.

The promoters - AEG Live - say they'll make an announcement shortly about the refunds, but with millions already spent on staging the show, and the complications of fans buying tickets from many different sources, it could take some time to resolve.

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For the past few weeks, I've been trying to avoid all adverts for the SECC show Walking with Dinosaurs.

Not just because the show might confuse my four-year-old with eyes like saucers that dinosaurs do still roam the earth, but because the ticket prices are almost as huge as the dinosaurs in the show.

But even in the midst of a recession, it seems like we're all still prepared to shell out for a show.

Perhaps there's a performance equivalent of the "lipstick index" - a sign that even in the most difficult financial times, we'll stretch to a ticket for something that cheers us up, helps us escape all those financial fears - or I suppose, now and again, gives us a better understanding of why we're all going to hell in a handcart.

Hate to mention Take That in the same blog as dinosaurs - but it's all about the same thing. Sheer unadulterated entertainment.

That's why 50,000 fans a night packed into Hampden last weekend for three nights on the trot; it's why my brothers are off headbanging to ACDC next week and yes, I give in, I'm off to see the Boss the following week.

It's hopefully a good sign, not just for the stadium shows and the outdoor performances but for the scores of festivals, big and small, which will take place across the country over the summer.

And the four-year-old got his share - with a trip to the Scooby Doo stage show. Well and truly aimed at his age group.

Think panto - "it's behind you" - and you'll get the drift. The grown-ups might grimace at some of the cornier lines - they flew right over the little ones' heads - but there's some nostalgic moments which will raise a laugh among those who remember the original series.

The cast are brilliant - particularly in the wake of all those quick-fire costume changes, and first night technical problems on the radio microphones.

And there's a lesson too for other arts organisations who're wary about tampering with traditional start times.

Most of the evening shows begin at 1830 BST - meaning tiny theatre-goers don't have to stay out too long past their bedtimes.

And going by the contented little faces packed into a sticky Kings Theatre in Glasgow on Wednesday, it seemed to pay off.

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