Fancy dress for T party

Jul 11 2008 by Andrew Welsh, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

FESTIVAL fever took hold last night as thousands of music fans made an earlier than usual appearance in Balado.

Doors opened to rain-soaked campers for the first time on a Thursday at the annual T in the Park festival in a bid to prevent a repeat of the traffic problems that marred last year’s event.

With admissions resuming at 9am today, up to 60,000 colourful fans are expected to take in the festival’s opening performances tonight from a significantly fuller line-up than was available at the first-ever ‘T Friday’ 12 months ago.

Artists as diverse as the Verve, Chemical Brothers, Stereophonics and Feeder will be playing across six stages this evening.

Tomorrow around 80,000 people will pack into the Kinross-shire site to see headlining sets from Rage Against The Machine, Ian Brown and Kaiser Chiefs, with support from the likes of the Fratellis, Biffy Clyro and the Pogues.

The stars helping celebrate the event’s 15th birthday at its final day on Sunday will include REM, the Prodigy, Kings Of Leon, Primal Scream and Norwegian newcomer Ida Maria.

In all, over 180 artists will be showcasing their talents at 12 separate points.

T boss Geoff Ellis said: “For those camping the Friday has always been a big part anyway, this is giving them that bit more.

“We have no plans to make it a full day on a Friday but we are encouraging people to get there early.

“Last year there were extenuating circumstances that caused the problems.

“However, they could arise again so we have spent money on promoting new roads going into the car parks.

“We're also encouraging more people to travel by bus and the road policing is being really stepped up.”

Tickets for this weekend’s event sold out within minutes of going on sale, with many finding their way into the hands of touts.

However, the lucky few can still get hold of briefs at face value on the Ticketmaster TicketExchange website.

Meanwhile, to make tonight’s extravaganza as much fun as possible, the festival organisers have invited attendees to don fancy dress.

The new Fancy Dress Friday is expected to turn the former airfield into the most colourful campsite in the UK.

Campers are set to roll up in fantastic costumes covering historic, superhero and T in the Park themes.

Participants deemed to be wearing the best costumes and those with the most innovatively dressed up tents will be rewarded with tickets to next year’s event.

A limited number of Early Bird briefs for T in the Park 2009 go on sale on Tuesday at 9am, with prices frozen at this year’s levels.