The Tartan Heart Festival is a music festival held on the Belladrum Estate near Inverness, in Scotland. Its normally held at the start of August. Founded in 2004, the festival has rapidly grown in popularity.
Background information
The festival is well known for its wide ranging musical scope, as well as its family friendly atmosphere, with a large dedicated family camp-site, as well as free entry for children under the age of 12.
Previous acts that have played at the festival include Embrace, The Automatic, The Proclaimers, Arlo Guthrie, The Peatbog Faeries and many more.
As well as the main stages, there are a wide range of stalls and fringe acts, including one man bands, alternative therapy tents, barbers, yoga and dance tuition, not to mention the Miniscule of Sound, the worlds smallest nightclub!
Tartan heart fringe
Fringe
As well As the festival itself there is also a Festival fringe which centres around the 2 weeks surrounding the festival.
This usually finishes in the early hours of Hootananny's on the Thursday prior to the festival.
The fringe's gigs have no entry-fee in some bars/pubs however others may charge, the fringe showcases a variety of Acts and Music Genres.
The Fringe sets the mood in the run up to Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival August 8, 9, 2008 and offers a musical trail around the Highlands for the intrepid music lover.
2004
2004 was the first year of the Tartan Heart Festival and ran for only one day - 14 August 2004 [1]
Winners of the Hootananny's Battle of the Bands Competition
2005
In 2005 the festival was on Friday the 12th & Saturday the 13th of August. This year it had five stages, ranging in size from the Grassroots Tent, which has a capacity of approximately 250 and is dedicated to small acoustic and folk acts, through to the Garden Stage, which is a natural amphitheatre that can hold several thousand people
In 2005, new features include the Seedlings Stage for new or unsigned artists and the Venus Flytrap Palais, a stage totally dedicated to the wonderful and sometimes, frankly, weird in music, theatre, cabaret and performance art.[2]
A man and a woman were taken to Raigmore Hospital on the morning of the 8th of August after a gas canister exploded inside a tipi at the festival.
Festival promoters said “we are reviewing, with the emergency services, our policy on gas cylinders in the future.” [7]
2009
It was announced that the 2009 festival will take place on the 7th and 8th of August, and the headline acts will be the Editors and Ocean Colour Scene[8]
