Top cop hails T's success despite weather

Jul 10 2007 Alison Anderson

THE officer in charge of policing T in the Park yesterday reflected that the event was an outstanding success overall – despite the admission that “it’s fair to say the weather defeated everybody involved.”

Chief Superintendent Matt Hamilton praised festival-goers for their good spirits, both in the adversity of Friday and Saturday’s mud and in the perfect conditions of Sunday.

And he was delighted to report that the police had made fewer arrests among the 80,000 music fans than in last year’s smaller festival.

“There was a great atmosphere at this year’s festival,” said the police chief. “Arrests were down on last year despite there being more people.

“Last year we made 70 arrests, this year there were 66, around 30 of whom were custody cases.

“A lot of those were for drug offences and it was encouraging to note that out of the 30 custody cases, we only talking about 14 for non-drug related offences, and nothing particularly serious.

“It’s fair to say that officers have felt this year’s T in the Park was particularly good-spirited and people were clearly there just to enjoy themselves.”

But Chief Superintendent Hamilton said it was time to call a halt to the phenomenal growth of T in the Park.

Numbers have increased year on year since 17,000 trooped to Strathclyde Park in 1994 to this year’s 80,000-strong party.

That figure was as much as the Balado site and surrounding area could cope with, he asserted: “Both the police and the organisers feels numbers at the moment are right.”

And he attributed the success of the 2007 festival to the co-operation between the organisers, police, the other emergency services and other organisations: “

“It’s not by accident that T in the Park was such a great success.

“It is testament to the planning which goes into an event of this scale, the information that is made available to the public before and during the event, and perhaps the fact that we are seeing veterans returning year on year.

“The planning for next year will start in September.

“We always try to pick up on things which are not working and make them better.’’

While even the powers of the police cannot make the weather better in the run-up to the 2008 festival, Chief Superintendent Hamilton assured that there would be a good long look at future traffic arrangements.

“Obviously the first day of T in the Park this year was extremely difficult given the weather, and every effort was put in to make the parking work.

“Organisers dropped 1600 tonnes of bottoming on Friday night in addition to what was already down, and put in extra trackway, and although everything possible was done it’s fair to say that the weather defeated everybody.”

He added: “Other than on Friday, the roads issue was not a problem.”

Ian Golding, of the Scottish Ambulance Service and head of medical services at Balado, confirmed that the hospital tent treated 617 fans over the weekend which was slightly up on last year’s figure of 490, although this is considered in line with the increased capacity. 53 patients were transferred to NHS hospitals off-site which is well below the norm for the event.

Mr Golding responded: “In terms of working at the event, this has been the best one for us yet. The audience was really positive throughout the weekend and as always there was some fantastic team work between everyone backstage. There was a wide range of ailments and conditions dealt with but there was nothing serious to report.”

Festival director Geoff Ellis said yesterday: “I thought there were some really outstanding performances over the weekend that will go down in T history such as Brian Wilson, Paolo Nutini and an incredible closing set by Snow Patrol, that they said had raised the bar once again for their favourite ever gig.

“My prediction for Snow Patrol’s Run to be the festival anthem was definitely accurate although it did have real competition from The Fratellis’ Chelsea Dagger which was one of the loudest singalongs I have ever heard at the event.

“I was also particularly proud of the new Healthy T area, which completely surpassed our expectations in terms of the huge volume of people going to the area to try the food and watch demos from the likes of The Hairy Bikers and Martin Wishart.

“We also announced that 40,000 tickets for T in the Park 2008 will go on sale today and I would urge those fans who do not manage to get tickets in the first batch, not to turn to unofficial sources but instead to sign up to tinthepark.com and wait for news in early 2008 with regards to the on sale date for the next batch.”

T in the Park 2008 will go on sale at 9am today at this year’s prices as a special early bird offer.

The festival will return to Balado, and will take place on July 11-13. The Friday night entertainment in the main arena will once again only be open to campers.

A maximum of two tickets will be allowed per person by calling Ticketmaster on 0870 169 0100 or online at www.ticketmaster.co.uk or www.tinthepark.com