T in the Park
Location(s)	Balado, Perth and Kinross, Scotland
Years active	1994 - present
Founded by
Date(s)	Second weekend of July (3 days)
Genre(s)	Rock, Alternative rock, Indie rock, Hard rock, Punk rock, Techno, House, Electronic, Ceilidh
Website	www.tinthepark.com

T in the Park is a major music festival that has been held annually in Scotland since 1994. It is named after its main sponsor, the brewing company Tennents. It was originally held at Strathclyde Park, but since 1997 has been held at a disused airfield in Balado, in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. T in the Park was originally a two-day festival but since 2007 has taken place over three days, and introduced in 2008 was the chance to upgrade a weekend camping ticket to allow camping access on the Thursday - the day before any musicians performed. The festival is promoted by Big Day Out.

As well as the main seven stages of music, there are large camping areas to cater for the majority of festival-goers who stay for the duration of the event. There are also various concession stalls and shops provided, as well as other attractions, such as a large funfair, complete with Big Wheel.

Early years

Acts appearing in the opening year included Primal Scream, Oasis, Crash Test Dummies, Blur, The Manic Street Preachers, Rage Against the Machine and Cypress Hill. The following year the festival featured Kylie Minogue, The Prodigy, Alanis Morissette, Black Grape and Supergrass playing in blazing sunshine and high temperatures. In 1996, Radiohead, Pulp and No Doubt played, and in 1997 the event moved to its present site of Balado, Kinross-shire, when local developers wanted to use Strathclyde Park for other purposes.

Since moving, the festival has expanded in size with a mix of bands such as Travis, Texas, Green Day, Foo Fighters, Garbage, Moby, Iggy Pop, Stereophonics, REM, The Proclaimers, The Darkness, Idlewild, Muse, The Polyphonic Spree, and The Chemical Brothers.

In recent years, the festival has shared much of its lineup with Oxegen, a festival that takes place on the same weekend in County Kildare, Ireland. Acts usually play T in the Park one day and Oxegen the next, or vice versa.

2003 festival

Main Stage

NME Stage

2004 festival

The 2004 edition attracted approximately 60,000 people on both the Saturday and Sunday. The two biggest stages being the Main Stage and the NME Stage, along with four tents which included the Slam Tent and the King Tut's Tent.

Originally David Bowie was supposed to headline the main stage on the Saturday evening, but had to pull out due to illness. The Darkness were promoted to headline the main stage and played to a small crowd. Many music fans went to see Muse on the NME stage instead. The Strokes closed the festival, headlining the main stage on the Sunday night.

The 2004 line-up was as follows:

Main Stage

NME Stage

King Tut's Tent

X-Tent

Slam Tent

T Break Stage

2005 festival

Tickets for the 2005 event sold out in record time, just four days after going on sale, five months in advance of the festival. The event saw around 69,000 people a day watching more than 170 bands over 10 stages. It was named best festival in that year's UK Festival Awards, beating the Glastonbury Festival for the first time.

Some of the bands performing included Green Day, who headlined Sunday night, Travis, The Killers, Keane, El Presidente, The Prodigy, New Order, Fightstar, James Brown, Echo & the Bunnymen, Two Lone Swordsmen, DJ Sneak, Richie Hawtin & Ricardo Villalobos, Sucioperro, Audioslave, Jimmy Eat World, Death From Above 1979, Eagles of Death Metal, Mylo, Athlete, Snoop Dogg, Queens of the Stone Age and Ian Brown. Saturday saw the return of the Foo Fighters, who came back to Scotland in dramatic style, headlining the main stage.

This was also the year where a notable "riot" occurred. On Sunday night a huge line of festival goers walked through the campsite paths in a group singing songs of bands which appeared at the festival. At one point upon reaching the entrance to the festival main arena, some members of the crowd of people "invaded" the festival grounds and filled the Ceilidh Tent. There were also reports of people managing to make it up on to the Main Stage until local authorities and festival security managed to control the event. This was, however, considered quite tame compared to other Festival "riots" throughout Britain.^{citation needed}

The 2005 line-up was as follows:

2005 Festival

Main Stage

Radio 1/NME Stage

King Tut's Tent

X-Tent

Slam Tent

Futures Stage

T Break Stage

2006 festival

Tickets for T in the Park, 2006, sold out in under an hour[1]. It is believed that the unprecedented speed of these sales was largely due to the absence of the Glastonbury Festival that year, as well as ticket touts' increasing use of internet auction sites such as eBay.

An extra 12,000 tickets were put on sale on the internet and by phone on June 3, 2006, at 9:00am, which sold out in just under ten minutes[2], further emphasising the festival's growing popularity.

The 2006 line-up was as follows.

Main Stage

Radio 1/NME Stage

King Tut's Tent

Pet Sounds Arena

Slam Tent

Futures Stage

T-break Stage

2007 festival

The 2007 festival took place on the 6th, 7th and 8th of July, 2007 - the first time the festival had been held over three days. The first 35,000 tickets went on sale shortly after the 2006 festival and were sold within 70 minutes. The final batch of tickets, released on the 9th of March, sold out in less than 20 minutes.

The first day was marred by traffic congestion with up to 13 hours of delays and 12 miles of tailbacks on the southbound M90 motorway. The organisers are now considering expanding the festival's capacity so that it can seriously challenge Glastonbury Festival.

The 2007 line-up was as follows:

Main Stage

Radio 1/NME Stage

King Tut's Tent

Pet Sounds Arena

Slam Tent

Futures Stage

T-break Stage

Now over three days, Friday's music was only available to those with T in the Park 2007 camping passes.

Amy Winehouse and Gogol Bordello pulled out at the last minute due to "exhaustion" and to duet with Madonna at Live Earth, respectively.

Also, Tokyo Police Club failed to turn up for unknown reasons, as did You Say Party! We Say Die!.

2008 festival

The 2008 festival took place on the 11th, 12th and 13th of July, 2008. It was announced that the campsite would open on 10 July 2008 to avoid a repeat of the previous year's traffic problems. The first batch of "early bird" tickets (approximately 40,000) were released at 9:00am on the 10 July 2007, selling out in less than 70 minutes with the line up yet to be announced. The next batch of tickets went on sale on 16 February 2008 at 9am. Although tickets sold out in less than an hour, there was still a chance to purchase tickets on the TicketMaster Exchange website, eBay and elsewhere.

The bands headlining the 2008 event were Rage Against the Machine, The Verve and R.E.M. on the Main Stage and The Chemical Brothers, Kaiser Chiefs and The Prodigy on the Radio 1 / NME Stage.

The Festival's green credentials were recognised in 2008 with the award of the Greener Festival Award 2008 from http://agreenerfestival.com who noted that the festival was long been carbon neutral, promoted public transport and had excellent policies to protect the local environment and waterways.

Main Stage

Radio 1 / NME Stage

King Tut's Tent

Slam Tent

Pet Sounds Arena

Futures Stage

Relentless Stage

The Relentless Stage, new to the 2008 version of the festival, was named after and sponsored by Relentless energy drink.

The 2008 festival was marred by two huge incidents which occurred over the weekend, including the first death at T in the Park. One man was found dead in his tent, another man was stabbed 11 times by two men after he intervened to stop them harassing a female friend of his, he is in a stable condition but is expected to make a full recovery. The organisers have been heavily criticized for the security not stopping the man who smuggled the knife into the festival. There were only 68 arrests at T in 2008, 1 up from the previous year.

2009 festival

The 2009 festival will take place over three days between Friday 10th and Sunday 12th of July. As with the 2008 festival, the campsite will be open on the Thursday evening to prevent traffic queues forming on the Saturday.

The first batch of "early bird" tickets sold out in ten hours on July 15, 2008, with the line up yet to be announced.^[2] Organiser Geoff Ellis has announced some acts that he will be chasing for next years festival. The main rumour is that he wants David Bowie, who he feels he has "unfinished business with". Bowie was supposed to headline the Main Stage at the 2004 festival, but pulled out due to an acutely blocked artery, which required emergency surgery.^[3]

External links

• T in The Park - official website
• BBC coverage of T In The Park 2008
• The Skinny on T In The Park 2008
• stv interviews and guide to T in the Park 2008
• The Verve, REM and Rage Against The Machine to headline T in the Park 2008
• Breaking news, reviews and line-ups from NME.com
• [3]