The Royal Highland Centre has been announced as the venue for the newest addition to Scotland’s festival calendar - Connect Music Festiva l, which will take place this summer.
Connect Music Festival will be held at the centre between 26 and 28 of August and will be a welcome addition to the Scottish music scene.
Festival organisers DF Concerts & Events, who also run TRNSMT festival in Glasgow, have selected the venue specifically due to both its rural feel and the ability to make the event as accessible as possible for festival goers from across the country.
The Royal Highland Centre enjoys great transport links, with attendees easily able to access the site by train, tram and bus, which in turn supports the Festival’s wider sustainability ambitions.
DF Concerts & Events CEO, Geoff Ellis said he was looking forward to the new festival being held at the Royal Highland Centre.
He said: “We are delighted to be announcing the Royal Highland Centre as our new festival home for Connect today. During initial planning discussions around the relaunch of Connect, we realised that we had to make some changes and to remaster the original Festival proposition for today’s audiences.
"One of the biggest considerations we had was around public transport and ensuring the event was accessible to Festival Goers from across the country. The Royal Highland Centre provides a purpose-built event site that is readily accessible by public transport for each of the three days. This not only makes it easy for festival goers to attend but hugely supports our ambition to deliver a more sustainable festival now and into the future.”
He added:“The team have worked tremendously hard to bring together a fantastic music line-up that is worthy of the Connect name and we can’t wait to share that with everyone next week. Watch this space!”
Festival Manager, Katt Lingard added: “ As a team, we are really excited about bringing Connect to life within the grounds of The Royal Highland Centre. It’s a very unique site and it gives us a fantastic opportunity to create a truly sustainable approach to the festival experience.
“One of the biggest attractions of our new home, is the site’s permanent infrastructure and existing facilities. These play a crucial role in realising our sustainability ambitions for the festival.
“Although we are still very much in the planning stages, Connect’s audience will be at the heart of both its content and design. We are so excited to welcome our guests, showing them everything that Connect has to offer - from incredible artists and entertainment to our focus on wellness and the arts, all served alongside a fabulous range food and drink.”
Connect is an entirely new festival experience but retains many of the qualities and ethos of its namesake from 2007 & 2008 and will feature the best in leftfield talent from grassroots through to the award-winning headliners. In addition to amazing music there will be a wealth of unique, remarkable and experiences to immerse yourself in.
There will be a plethora of bands, DJs, artists, performers, spoken word, visual arts and installations that will be keep festival goers amused throughout the weekend as well as culinary delights and crafted drinks from local artisans.
This version of Connect Festival will not be a traditional camping event, although there will be a limited number of luxury, boutique camping structures such as bell tents and more – along with a number of onsite hotels within walking distance. More information will be available in due course.
The first line-up announcement will be on Wednesday.
Fans will be able to sign up for presale tickets here and general sale from Friday, February 25 at 9am.
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