Tartan Heart Festival

2 Jul 2004 in Festival, Highland, Music

Meet the baby, live and kicking

Festival organiser JOE GIBBS explains why the TARTAN HEART FESTIVAL at Belladrum is going to be the Highlands’ big music occasion of 2004, and all in a good cause.

A WOODSTOCK for 2004? A Highland Glastonbury? Our very own T in the Park? All those venerable events have been mentioned in relation to next month’s Tartan Heart Festival at Belladrum, but Joe Gibbs, the festival’s director, acknowledges that they have a way to go to catch up.

“Our line is that you have seen the mothers at Woodstock and Glastonbury and Balado, now come and meet the baby!”

Quite a boisterous baby, mind you. The day-long event in the ItalianGardensat Belladrum on 14 August will feature a stellar line-up of artists from a broad range of rock and folk sources. Headliners include the feisty Linda Gail Lewis, sister of Jerry Lee and a bit of a wild one in her time, if her autobiography – The Devil, Me and Jerry Lee – is to be believed. Linda Gail will perform her trademark combination of rockabilly and country with two of her daughters, an appropriate addition in a year that has been officially (if contentiously) branded the 50^th anniversary of the advent of rock and roll.

The bill also includes Capercaillie’s Karen Matheson and Donald Shaw, the Peatbog Faeries, songsmith James Grant (with friends on board), the colourful Totó La Momposina, and the monochrome Grim Northern Social. Inverness-based blues outfit The Andy Gunn Band will feature a special guest in the shape of soul singer Geno Washington, Highland rockers Dionyssus have been added to the bill in the wake of their Emergenza successes, and you will also hear David Ogilvy, The Lush Rollers, Mystik Shoes, Planet Potato and Beats Working.

Free parking and camping is available (see the website mentioned below for details), and expect street theatre, alternative therapies, yoga, dance, crafts, various stalls, food and drink among the other distractions, and all for £25 (in advance – it’s £35 on the day, and that’s only if there are any tickets left). Families are welcome, and under 12s get in free, bless ‘em (again, see website for full details of hwo to book).

“The music will take place in the old Italian Gardens at Belladrum, which is a kind of natural outdoor arena.”

THE FESTIVAL is in aid of Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre, and brings together several strands of Joe Gibbs’ interests, including his love of music, his work for charity, and his need to restore the gardens at Belladrum.

“The idea came out of a lifelong obsession with music on my part. I had worked on a compilation album with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull when he was still at Strathaird, in aid of Highland Hospice at that time. He donated tracks, as did other people. and he produced it, and it raised quiet a lot of money.

“I wanted to go on and do some kind of festival after that, but the hospice changed their funding methods, and I was no longer involved with that. Then I was recruited for Maggie’s to do the same sort of thing, and I sit on their fund-raising board in the Highlands. I felt this was a great opportunity, because Maggie’s is actually quiet a hip charity, with a consciously contemporary feel that I thought would fit well with a festival. It is an awareness raising exercise for Maggie’s, and we hope to make them some money as well.”

“The other line of impetus was the gardens here, which have been crumbling into a rather over-romantic ruin. This last winter dealt it a body blow, and we needed an impetus to do them up, so it all came together. The music will take place in the old Italian Gardens at Belladrum, which is a kind of natural outdoor arena. We will have one stage this year, and 12 hours of bands.”

The programme was put together by Joe and Rob Ellen of Medicine Music, and reflects a broad reach of interests, taking in rock, pop, American, folk and world music.

“It’s a creative process doing this kind of thing,” Joe explained. “You hope to see a couple of thousand people enjoying themselves, and you couldn’t put your heart and soul behind selling it if you weren’t happy with the music. I feel we have pretty much got the best we could possibly have done for year one of the festival. We want to make it a real success in this first year and to give them fantastic value for money, and then they will come back next year, because we hope that it will be an ongoing event. If it goes well, we can go on from here, and build on the momentum.”

So now it’s just a matter of praying the rain decides to take a break?

“Yes, absolutely,” he laughs, “although there is a festival tradition of messing about in the mud, isn’t there?”

The Tartan Heart Festival takes place on Saturday 14 August 2004 at Belladrum, near Beauly.

DUE TO FAST ADVANCE SALES, NO TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE GATE. PLEASE DON’T TURN UP WITHOUT A WRISTBAND.