Something be happenin’ up in dem hills, boy... it’s big... it’s full of music, old and new. If you’re partial to bit o’ haggis, kilts, bagpipes, and some good time Rock ‘n’ Roll in the sun then, T in the Park is calling your name through the deepest valleys of Scotland.

Located way up north in the wilderness that is Balado, Scotland, just south-east of Dundee is Scotland’s premier alternative music festival. T in the Park has now established itself as the leading music event for the country – ever since its debut over a decade ago in 1994, introducing top quality music to a mass audience. Originally situated in Strathclyde Park, (home of rowing - there’s a fun fact for you), T in the Park gets the T in its name from its sponsorship with the brewing company Tennents (kind of like Carling/Reading), the best selling lager of Scotland, which has financially back the festival since its very beginning. With backing as huge as this, T in the Park has become incredibly popular with music lovers and musicians alike, as well as the local folk surrounding the area.

T in the Park managed to cement its status in to the festival hall of fame within its first year! The, original, two-day event featured acts from across the globe playing across seven stages. Rage against the Machine, Bjork and Cypress Hill were some of the few acts that had the fields filled as they took to the main stage, while Indie Rock heavy weights such as The Manic Street Preachers, Pulp and Oasis - who once declared triumphantly that T in the Park has been their best ever performance - played on the King Tut Stage. Also sticking to their roots and promoting new talent in Scotland, the New Talent stage featured the then unknown band Glass Onion, who now happen to go by the name Travis.

Over the years T in the Park has had a few reshuffles including moving its location to a disused airfield in Balado in 1997. Since 2004, the year when Oxegen festival in Ireland was established, which takes place on the same weekend as T in the Park, both the festivals have featured very similar line-ups – almost in the way that Reading and Leeds festivals work.

2008 saw a remarkable interest in the festival, the first batch of tickets, approximately 40,000, sold out within 70 minutes of them being released, before the line up of the festival was even announced! But the fans weren’t to be disappointed as Rage against the Machine made T in the Park one of their two UK performances that year, alongside Reading. 2008 also hosted the first year of the Relentless Stage in association with the energy drink. This featured the heavier edge of the festival. Canadian rockers, Cancer Bats, riffed out the stage on the Saturday, alongside fellow Canadians Fucked Up and the UK’s own epic metallers, Devil Sold His Soul. And this year seems set to be a quality year for the festival, bringing together some of the greatest and most diverse acts for the three day event. The main stage will, on the first day, see 2008/2009 success-story of the world Kings of Leon headlining the day as just one of their many festival appearances this year. Expect plenty of “woooooooooo” (you know the rest). Other headliners are the newly reformed Blur, your parent’s favourite, Snow Patrol, and Las Vegas’ own Indie darlings, The Killers. Make sure you have your running shoes on as you’ll be dashing across to all six stages in an effort to check out all the top quality acts that are performing over the weekend including the legendary Pet Shop Boys, industrial noise merchant Nine Inch Nails, pop queen Katy Perry and the blue collar beauty that is The Gaslight Anthem.

The festival is held over the weekend of Friday the 10th of June till the Sunday the 12th, but tickets are now sold out apart from day tickets for the Friday – so we suggest you go along with your ninja gear and a step ladder to scale the nearest tree. If you have a ticket then lucky for you, the lovely people at T in the Park’s website have already gone to all the trouble of planning out your route to get to the festival. This includes such modes of transport from anything from Car to plane tickets – making sure that no one has an excuse and no one is excluded from the event.

To check out more facts about the festival, head on over to their website for everything you’ll need to know in order to survive this three day onslaught of great music.

www.tinthepark.com

Words > William Aldous