T in the Park will never return, confirms Geoff Ellis

Speculation over the future of Scotland’s biggest music festival, T in the Park, has finally been put to rest after its organiser confirmed it will never be coming back.

Geoff Ellis made the announcement on the opening day of the TRNSMT festival in Glasgow, which is now in its third year having replaced its predecessor in the nation’s musical calendar.

T in the Park was first held in 1994 and ran until 2016, with a host of famous British headliners including Radiohead, Pulp, Blur and Oasis playing its main stage in its early years.

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Originally held over two days with an overall capacity of less than 40,000, it soon expanded to fit in more acts and larger crowds, entertaining more than 250,000 music fans over three days at its peak.

A T in the Park poncho at TRNSMT. Picture: PAA T in the Park poncho at TRNSMT. Picture: PA
A T in the Park poncho at TRNSMT. Picture: PA

The festival ran into major problems in 2015 when it moved from its site of Balado in Kinross to a new one at Strathallan Castle, with thousands of fans experiencing severe travel delays.

Mr Ellis, the current CEO of T in the Park’s organisers DF Concerts, said it had been “an amazing festival” but it had now “ran its course” and would not be making a return.

“Everyone loved T and we all had great fun doing it,” he told the BBC. “You can always look fondly on the past. It was really the third major festival in the UK.

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“We’ve got some great memories…we’ll always have them and so will all the people who grew up with it. It’s all about TRNSMT for us now. Things move on and we keep creating.”

He added: “The festival scene’s really, really healthy these days and it’s great to still be amongst it.”

Mr Ellis previously insisted that TRNSMT was “not trying to replace” T in the Park, but the long-term future of the event has never been confirmed until now.

While T in the Park saw thousands of people camping at a rural site, TRNSMT is held in Glasgow Green and has no camping facilities, with music fans able to buy day tickets and stay in hotels.

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The first three editions of T in the Park were held at Strathclyde Park, near Hamilton in Lanarkshire, before it moved to Balado where it remained for almost 20 years until moving to Perthshire in 2015.

After enduring intense criticism over travel issues at the new site, two teenagers died at 2016’s festival in separate incidents, prompting organisers to announce the festival was “on a break”.

Music fans expressed their sadness at the news on social media. Andy Marks described the loss as a “real shame”, adding that the festival had been “part of Scotland’s music culture for many years”.

Ross Coutts added: “‏Shame this. Had some of the best weekends at T in the Park in the 2007-2013 years. Wasn’t the same after it moved from Balado.”

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