Rihanna to headline T in the Park festival

POP queen Rihanna has been lined to up headline the 20th anniversary celebrations for Scotland’s biggest music festival.

BRIAN FERGUSON

The multi-Grammy award-winner will be making her T in the Park debut when she tops the bill at Balado next July.

The superstar singer will be joined by folk-rock favourites Mumford & Sons as headliners at the three-day festival, which is about to release a new batch of “early-bird” tickets.

They previously performed at the event to huge acclaim back in 2009 and 2010 and have been confirmed on the back of a new number-one album, Babel.

Organisers also confirmed four other acts ahead of tickets going on sale on Friday morning - Paloma Faith, alt-J, Jake Bugg, and Of Monsters and Men.

It is rare for any of T in the Park’s headliners to be announced so far in advance, although the appearance of the Stone Roses at this year’s festival was confirmed in November of last year. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Elbow, Snow Patrol, Kasabian and New Order were among the other big-name acts to play this year.

A spokeswoman for the festival said: “Rihanna’s global domination shows no signs of slowing down with the release of Unapologetic - her seventh album in as many years, and one of the biggest female solo artists in the world will touch down in Kinross next July to deliver a hit-filled headline set that’s sure to go down in T in the Park history.”

Festival director Geoff Ellis said: “It seems like only yesterday that the first band took to the stage at Strathclyde Park for our inaugural T in the Park in 1994, now here we are in 2012 announcing two of the of the world’s biggest and best acts to headline our 20th edition.

“We have always worked incredibly hard to bring our T in the Park fans the best line-up possible, and this year is no exception.

“We are unbelievably excited that Rihanna and Mumford & Sons will be taking to the main stage in Kinross as we are sure our audience will be.

“We have many more fantastic acts in store for everyone and will announce these next year, but it’s shaping up to be one hell of celebration.”

George Kyle, head of sponsorship at Tennent’s Lager, the festival’s sponsors for the last 20 years, said: “It’s been an incredible journey for Tennent’s as founding partner in this amazing festival and we are exceptionally proud to have put the T in T in the Park for the past 20 years.

“Since the first outing in 1994, Tennent’s’ passion for and commitment to the festival has remained constant, as has our unswerving support for music through incredibly important initiatives such as T Break, supporting the very best in new music across Scotland.”

Tickets will be available from www.tinthepark.com from 9am on Friday.