Archives for July 14, 2008

So sad to hear about the stabbing at T in the Park at the weekend (and the death of another fan, apparently with no suspicious circumstances).

It's easy to take the kneejerk reaction that Scotland's biggest music festival is awash with drink, drugs and violence but that's really not the case. If anything, T in the Park has improved over the last few years.

Ten years ago, when I first started going, the atmosphere could be a little intimidating. Great gangs of teenagers, sozzled on cheap lager and chanting along to each and every act on the main stage. If your intention was anything different, you were largely out of place.

Some years later, and even though I've morphed into a middle-aged mum, I do feel that there's a place for me at T in the Park. A lot has changed. The demographic for starters - it's a much more mixed crowd, in terms of age and sex and geography.

This year, I met fans who'd travelled up from the Midlands, from Wales and the West Country where once they'd have come from as far as Falkirk.

There are plenty of conspiracists who say T's organisers are using postcode selection to create that mix - I have a colleague who claims friends in one of Scotland's poorer neighbourhoods have tried and failed to secure tickets for the last eight years, and believe it's not just bad luck which is stopping them.

Organisers deny any fixing - it's just the sheer popularity of the event they say which means 80,000 tickets sell out most years in an hour or less.

But whatever has happened, it makes for a more pleasant atmosphere. Admittedly, it'll never be a family friendly festival. It's boozy image - thanks to its roots and its sponsors - will never be shaken off.

But while it's still a huge part of the festival for many people, performers and fans alike, it's not everything. There are now so many alternatives - 11 stages, a funfair, stalls, a spa - that you'd have to be extremely dull to spend all day drinking in your tent.

The biggest change, though, is in the security. Not in response to violence - although there have been attacks at T in the Park before - but in response to terrorism.

In 2005, just days after the London transport bombings, and just a few miles from the G8 gathering at Gleneagles, organisers racked up the security. Metal detectors, bag searches, all became commonplace alongside the regular ticket checks. While the rest of the UK kept their eyes peeled for suspicious looking rucksacks, T in the Park had the prospect of checking 80,000 people who each brought their worldly goods in a rucksack.

But fans rose to the occasion - as they did two years later when torrential rain caused some of the car parks to subside and led to 12 mile tailbacks on all roads leading into Balado. Of course, there was fury and impatience - but there were also roadside parties and offers of accommodation for those who'd travelled great distances.

That was the reason organisers opened the campsite a day early this year, to try to stagger arrivals. Around 10,000 fans were in the campsite by Thursday night, 54,000 by the time the first bands came onstage on Friday. The atmosphere was good - noisy and high spirited, but nothing to suggest what was to come.

For all that it's a massive site, it's relatively well policed. Stewards patrol the site, it's well lit and managed.

There's also a camaraderie among the campers, even among those who start the festival as strangers. Hopefully that sense of cameraderie - so much more representative of the event than mindless violence - will be the strongest force here. Encouraging any fans who saw anything which might help police, to come forward with the information.

And I'm sure most T in the Park regulars would wish the 22-year-old in intensive care in Ninewells Hospital, the speediest of recoveries.

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