T in the Park set to quit Strathallan as organisers plot new event in Glasgow

T in the Park has been dogged by problems since it was forced to relocate to Strathallan.

T in the Park's organisers are said to be in talks about the staging of a new three-day event in July which would effectively replacing the long-running event in the calendar.

Glasgow Green, which has hosted high-profile music events regularly since the city’s reign as European Capital of Culture in 1990, is said to have been lined up as a venue, although festival-goers would almost certainly not be able to camp.

The deaths of three festival-goers overshadowed this year’s festival, which was also hit by bad weather, dwindling ticket sales and reports of anti-social behaviour problems at its campsite.

Police Scotland later revealed that 429 crimes had been reported at the festival in 2016, compared with 414 the previous year, despite efforts to improve security.

It is thought the new event being discussed between promoters DF Concerts and Glasgow City Council would not be known as T in the Park, which has been held every year since 1994 on three different sites, at Hamilton, Balado and Strathallan.

DF Concerts has been staging major outdoor shows in Glasgow in recent years, featuring acts like Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Paolo Nutini, Frightened Rabbit, Calvin Harris, Grace Jones, The View and The Killers.

One source quoted today said the acts being lined up for the new festival were “likely to appeal to a slightly older demographic.”

The insider said: “It’s been made clear that this isn’t T in the Park comes to Glasgow but it would obviously be madness to run both events up against each other.”

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: "We are in discussions with DF Concerts about hosting a non-camping festival in the city next July. We will not be, and are not interested in, hosting T in the Park."

T in the Park was forced to relocate from Balado airfield due to long-standing concerns from the Health and Safety Executive over an oil pipeline running underneath the site.

The new site at Strathallan Castle faced huge opposition from environmentalists and did not receive approval from Perth and Kinross Council until just two months before the 2015 event - which was dogged by problems with traffic congestion, crowd congestion and disorder.

The official T in the Park website has not been updated since July and there has been no announcement about the return of the event in 2017.

Headliners Stone Roses had already been announced and thousands of tickets had been sold by this time last year.

However the festival was embroiled in a long-running political row after it emerged T in the Park had been given secret state funding from the Scottish Government - despite DF Concerts posting profits of Â£6.2 million.

Scottish culture secretary Fiona Hyslop was accused of “cronyism” after it emerged that a former aide to Alex Salmond when he was First Minister had helped set up meetings between chief executive Geoff Ellis and ministers.