Belladrum: Organisers 'optimistic' about biggest festival in the Highlands going ahead this summer

Organisers of one of Scotland’s biggest music festival say they are “optimistic” it will still be able to go ahead this summer.

Belladrum has attracted a capacity crowd of 20,000 in recent years.

Belladrum, which is due to be headlined by Nile Rodgers, Van Morrison and Emeli Sande at the end of July, has told its supporters it is still planning to stage the event, which is staged just outside Beauly, near Inverness.

Responding to last week’s cancellation of Glastonbury, Belladrum has insisted it is a “more agile event”.

The 20,000-capacity festival said it was “able to adapt quicker to the fast moving and hopefully improving COVID-19 situation as we move into summer.”

The messaging over Belladrum is similar to the response of Glasgow’s TRNSMT festival to the Glastonbury cancellation.

Festival director Geoff Ellis pointed out that it takes “days rather than months to build” and insisted there was “reason to be optimistic” about major events going ahead in the summer.

However First Minister Nicola Sturgeon later warned it was likely to take “a little bit longer.”

She said: “I hope, just like everybody else hopes, that by then we will have restored a lot of normality to life, but you know we equally have to be realistic and pragmatic.”

Belladrum, which was first staged in 2004, is firmly established as the biggest festival in the Highlands and Islands.

Belladrum, which was first staged in 2004, has grown to become the biggest festival in the Highlands and Islands. All tickets for the 2020 event were sold out ahead of its cancellation last April.

Other acts in this year’s line-up include The Fratellis, Passenger, Shed Seven, Tide Lines, The Magic Numbers, Admiral Fallow, Manran, Kyle Falconer, Kinnaris Quintet and Goodbye Mr Mackenzie.

A statement from the festival said: “Belladrum has its heart firmly in the the local community and we wanted to take a moment to update you on where we are in regards to staging the festival this summer.

“With the recent cancellation of Glastonbury there has been a lot of speculation around the likelihood of any festivals taking place this summer.

"Glastonbury’s cancellation, while devastating news, is not entirely unexpected due to the sheer scale of the event and the timelines involved in producing a festival of this nature.

"Along with many other UK festivals, Belladrum is considerably smaller in scale, therefore more agile and able to adapt quicker to the fast moving and hopefully improving COVID-19 situation as we move into summer.

"This coupled with the positive news surrounding the ongoing vaccine rollout allows us to remain optimistic in delivering the festival later this year.

"The safety of our audience, staff, artists and local community are our number one priority and we will be following all government and local authority guidance as this evolves.

"We fully appreciate that with the ever-evolving nature of the pandemic there is a chance Belladrum may not be able to go ahead. However at this moment in time we remain positive.”

A spokeswoman for government agency EventScotland said: “Event organisers should continue to abide by the restrictions in place at the time of their event and monitor Scottish Government updates on changes to these.

"When planning an event, they should follow event sector guidance on the safe re-opening during the pandemic.

"Through the ongoing work of the event industry advisory group, we also continue to focus on supporting Government engagement in the development of a route map for the return of events."