Mud In The Park

With no Glastonbury Festival to bully this year, the British weather seems to have taken it out on the rest of the UK festival circuit as Download, Isle Of Wight, Wireless and Scotland’s T In The Park all ended in the sort of mud baths usually associated with Michael Eavis’s site at Worthy Farm.

TITP promoter Geoff Ellis told Pollstar his festival coped well with the conditions and that neither he nor the local authorities ever considered the possibility of calling off the event.

“The first day didn’t get the rain that had been forecast and I began to think we’d got away with it, but then on the Saturday it really hit us,” he said.

Regular onsite meetings, constant monitoring of all parts of the festival area and laying down trackway to protect the ground meant conditions remained under control.

“Some people in one part of the camping area had their tents washed away, but we’d already bought plenty of extra tents, sleeping bags and camping gear and so we soon found them fresh accommodation on a different part of the site,” Ellis explained.

Despite the weather, the festival at Balado still sold out in advance and broke its attendance record. The first day has previously had a capacity of 75,000 but this year it was raised to 85,000, the same as the first and second days.
Earlybird tickets for next year’s festival are already on sale at 2012 prices.

This year’s T In The Park lineup July 6-8 included Snow Patrol, New Order, The Stone Roses, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Tinie Tempah and Florence & The Machine.