Outsider festival postponed until 2009

THE Outsider music festival, which mixed top rock acts with biking, hiking and environmental activism in the Cairngorms, has been cancelled this year, organiser Pete Irvine said yesterday.

An international rock act favoured by the organisers has now decided not to come to the UK, Mr Irvine said.

Environmental concerns at the Rothiemurchus estate near Aviemore and funding problems were also to blame.

The Outsider drew nearly 10,000 people a day to see acts such as Crowded House and KT Tunstall last June.

The event will relaunch in 2009 alongside Scotland's "Year of Homecoming", and become a biennial event after that, said Mr Irvine.