A BRAND new music festival headlined by Idlewild and The View has been given the green light.
The approval from Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) means that the inaugural Heartland Festival in Pitlochry will take place on Saturday June 29 and Sunday June 30.
Up to 4000 festival-goers are expected each day with the majority attending the whole weekend.
The outdoor event has a capacity of 8000 but organisers are not expecting a late surge in ticket sales.
As well as Idlewild and The View, other confirmed acts include Tide Lines, Nina Nesbitt, Skerryvore, and Cammy Barnes.
The event will take place on the town’s recreation ground and the entrance for reserved parking will be opposite Blair Athol Distillery, Perth Road.
The site will comprise the main arena, a car park, food stalls and one bar. There will also be three funfair rides and a Ferris wheel.
Promoter Graham Howie told the PKC licensing committee on Monday: “We really are looking at quite modest numbers in our first year. This is something we’d like to do every year.
“If you think of the Highland Games which has 8000 attendees on a yearly basis, I think we’re really looking at around 4000 a day as a maximum at the moment based on current ticket sales but that could change as we get closer to the event itself.”
Howie has been involved in the music industry for a while but this will be his first festival in Scotland. As a local resident, he hopes it will help bring a “much-needed boost for the local economy”.
He said: “It’s a celebration of Scottish music in Pitlochry. We’re hoping this will be a much-needed boost for the local economy.
"We’ve been trying to attract people to come in and stay for the whole weekend which seems to have been successful with the number of weekend tickets sold. It’s very much a family event.”
The event will support two local charities: Pavilion User Groups (PUGS) in association with Highland Perthshire Communities Partnership and the Pitlochry Community Action Trust.
Howie later added: “We’re hoping it can help and drive the local economy which has taken a battering after Covid. I think it’s a great celebration for Pitlochry. It helps to put us back on the map.
“We’re losing the Blair Castle Horse Trials this year and I very much hope – in future years – this is something that could replace it.”
Working alongside LHG Productions, he said they had been “meticulous” in their planning and preparations.
Howie said: “It’s a very well run and very well organised festival.
“The response in the local area has been very very strong. 99 per cent of the population of Pitlochry seem very very keen on it.”
Lee Storey of LHG Productions assured councillors: “We have got 30 years of experience of delivering large-scale events and festivals all over the UK.”
The licence application received one objection from a local resident who expressed concerns about noise, parking, toilets and potential dirty camping as there is no on-site camping.
Howie told the committee: “Noise levels will be monitored by sound limiting equipment with Perth and Kinross Council visiting the day before the event to agree sound levels for the event itself and local residents will be notified of the schedule of events happening.”
The music will stop at 11pm on both days and the bar will close at 10.30pm. Howie assured the committee customers have been notified there is no camping on site.
He added: “There will be security before the event – as part of the set-up – 24 hours and we will make sure no one is camping on the park itself or on recreation park itself.”
A “very substantial traffic plan” is in place with no parking on Ferry Road or Tummel Crescent throughout the event. It will be marshalled, monitored and coned with access restricted to residents and emergency vehicles.
As for toilets, Storey said they would have “over and above” what they need.
Bailie Rhona Brock sought clarity over when the car park would close due to the application saying it would be open until 4pm on Sunday.
Storey said: “We have to have all the cars out on Sunday night; the whole site will be cleared by midnight on Sunday.”
PKC’s Licensing Committee unanimously agreed to grant a one-year Public Entertainment Licence for the two-day event.
