Festival camped up with extra tickets

Dec 16 2008 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Tuesday

IT will be a much bigger T time at Balado in July!

Organisers of leading music festival T in the Park were given unanimous backing by Perth and Kinross Licensing Committee to allow an additional 5000 ticket sales for the weekend – but only for those who buy the camping package.

This will take the number of ticketholders in the T in the Park arena for the Saturday and Sunday (July11 and 12, 2009) to 85,000, and bring the campsite capacity for the weekend up to 65,000.

On the Friday of the festival the arena capacity will increase from 60,000 to 70,000. Festival organisers, Big Day Out, are making 5000 Friday tickets available to people in Kinross and Milnathort, who, until now have been unable to gain access to Friday’s music unless they bought camping tickets. Now through controlled selling at the local David Sands supermarket, local people will be able to buy Friday tickets.

Big Day Out chief executive Geoff Ellis explained to the Licensing committee why an extra dollop of jam was being served with 2009’s T: “Our costs over the last two or three years have risen “astronomically rising” costs over the last two or three years in tandem with the “very, very strong” demand for T in the Park led organisers to feel the need to increase capacity of the event by 5000 a day “which we feel the site can easily accommodate.”

He continued: “To get the additional numbers we have a few options open to us and we are confident we can cope with the extra 5000 in the campsite.”

He pledged to build upon the success last year of opening up the campsite on the Thursday, explaining: “It had a big impact on traffic management.

“For 2009 we have seen an uptake on the early-bird tickets and we are confident that we will sell at least 15,000 of our 20,000 limit for the Thursday, and we will have activities in the campsite on the Thursday to keep people entertained.”

There were no objections from the council, police, fire and ambulance services to the increase in festival-goers.

Chief Superintendent Matt Hamilton of Tayside Police said: “With these increases we would have to review our policing but we are confident we could cope with these numbers.”

Councillor Michael Barnacle called for improved security in the campsite to deal with the criminal element.

Mr Ellis responded: “We do have a significant increase in our plans for the stewarding and policing arrangements which I think gives us a much more robust approach to managing the campsite.”

Licensing committee convener Peter Mulheron offered praise to the mega music event: “I would like to applaud the supreme effort by all agencies to ensure this world event goes from strength to strength, and I wish T in the Park great success in 2009.”.

THE complexity of behind-the-scenes working to ensure a safe event which complies with Public Entertainment Licensing conditions was outlined in a report to the licensing committee.

The report gained approval for a new structure for the T in the Park multi-agency group, comprising seven departments within Perth and Kinross Council, Tayside Police, Tayside Fire and Rescue, NHS Tayside, the Scottish Ambulance Service, SEPA, Big Day Out, BP, Scottish Water and councillors.

GEOFF Ellis reiterated his warning about T in the Park ticket scams, especially one website www.tinthepark2009.com

“I’m particularly concerned about this website. It is completely unofficial although it looks very good and official.

“We have recently tried to contact this company, but it is based in Hungary so will be harder to take legal action. We are in the process of lodging interdicts against them.

“People should only buy from official sites. There will not be any further tickets on sale until February, and I would urge people to register on the official site and they will be notified when tickets will be going on sale.”

Mr Ellis added this message to music-lovers seeking T in the Park tickets: “Please be aware that people are out there and not only trying to rip-off on ticket prices but also have no intention of giving a ticket.”