T in the Park boss Geoff Ellis praises Perthshire residents

Jul 9 2010 By Andrew Welsh

T IN THE PARK boss Geoff Ellis yesterday praised residents for helping ensure the event’s continued success.

A capacity 85,000 crowd will enjoy a stellar line-up of musical talents tomorrow and Sunday, with the vast majority of those due to be present at the Balado site by the time the first acts take to the stage at 5pm today.

And Ellis said that locals from the Kinross area have played a major part in ensuring that the crowds can enjoy a relaxed weekend.

He declared himself delighted that tickets had sold out within minutes, despite the UK’s continued economic gloom.

“We’ve certainly not seen any slowdown,” he told the PA.

“The festival is marvellous value for money, especially because we put on strong acts lower down the bill.

“Many people are looking on it as their summer holiday this year.

Our core age group is 19 to 25-year-olds.”

More festival-goers than ever before will be camping this weekend, and around 30,000 made their way to Balado yesterday for a four-night stay.

Tonight the bands will play all the way to midnight, but the DF Concerts boss said there are no immediate plans to extend the Saturday and Sunday finishes from beyond 11pm.

The closing night will also see a fireworks display no later than 11.30pm, weather permitting.

“People seem to be quite happy with the 11 finish because they go and have a bit of a party in the campsite,” he revealed.

“If we felt there was demand it would be something we would do in consultation with the local community.

“I don’t think it would have a massive impact. The stages are far enough away from the residents.”

T in the Park has virtually doubled in size since it was first staged at Balado in 1997.

Ellis said that making it possible for the vast numbers to safely negotiate the tight network of roads around Balado had been a priority in discussions with residents.

“We have got a traffic management group,” he explained.

“The local communities are involved and Perth and Kinross Council roads department and the police.

“There are no major changes this year. The year we had problems it was not down to our plan, but rather other factors that affected us.

“I’m confident we’ll not see a repeat.

We’ve invested a lot in temporary and permanent roads into the car parks.

“Also, the audience has listened in terms of taking on board our advice.

We want people to avoid rush hours.

“About half of the audience travel by bus. Otherwise, make sure you car share and buy your car parking ticket in advance if you must use the car.