T in the Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| T in the Park | |
| Image:T in The Park 2002.jpg | |
| Location(s) | Kinross, Scotland |
| Years active | 1994 - present |
| Date(s) | Second weekend of July |
| Genre(s) | Rock |
T in the Park is a major Scottish music festival, held annually since 1994. It is named after its main sponsor, Tennents. It was originally held at Strathclyde Park, and since 1997 has been held at Balado, near Kinross.
Contents |
[edit] The early years
Acts appearing in the opening year included Primal Scream, Oasis, Crash Test Dummies, Blur and The Manic Street Preachers. Cypress Hill were scheduled to close the show (but were delayed in customs) and they shared the stage with Rage Against the Machine.
The following year the festival sold out, with Kylie Minogue, Nick Cave, Alanis Morissette, Black Grape and Supergrass playing in blazing sunshine and high temperatures.
In 1996 Radiohead, Pulp and No Doubt played. In 1997 it moved to its present site of Balado, Kinross when local developers wanted to use Strathclyde Park for other purposes.
Since moving it has expanded in size with a mix of bands such as Travis, Texas, 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, which is on the same weekend, but in County Kildare, Ireland. Acts usually play T in the Park one day and Oxegen the next, or vice versa.
[edit] 2002 festival
The 2002 festival saw a return to Balado for Oasis, who headlined the Saturday night. The Sunday saw US pop-punk giants Green Day take the stage followed by Dave Grohl's Foo Fighters. The night was closed by a performance by The Chemical Brothers. Also playing that weekend were Primal Scream, Less than Jake and Hoobastank.
[edit] 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 Tuts Tent.
British acts performing at 2004 included Muse, Franz Ferdinand, Chemical Brothers, Funeral For a Friend, The Complete Stone Roses,The Libertines, Ash along with such international acts as The Strokes, Kings of Leon, Scissor Sisters and The Pixies
Originally David Bowie was supposed to headline the main stage on the Sunday evening, but had to pull out due to illness. The Darkness were promoted to headline the main stage, and had a comparatively small crowd, with many music fans going to see Muse on the NME stage instead.
[edit] 2005 festival
Tickets for the 2005 event sold out in record time just 4 days after going sale, 5 months in advance of the festival. This edition of T in The Park saw around 69,000 people a day watching more than 170 bands over 10 stages.
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, Queens of the Stone Age and Ian Brown. The Saturday saw the return of the Foo Fighters, who came back to Scotland in dramatic style headlining the main stage, their stage set was impressive and their set list included classics such as My Hero, Best of You and Big Me.
[edit] 2006 festival
T in the Park was the first UK festival to sell some limited amount of tickets for the following year when that year's festival had finished.
The organisers are now considering expanding the festival's capacity so it can seriously challenge Glastonbury Festival.
Acts for this year included The Who, who headlined on Sunday 9 July, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who headlined on the Saturday evening. Other acts that performed included Kaiser Chiefs, The Ordinary Boys, Sigur Rós, Slam, Felix Da Housecat, Placebo, Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, The Strokes, Primal Scream, Maxïmo Park, Manu Chao, Jeff Mills, El Presidente, Paul Weller, Goldfrapp, Pharrel Williams, The Kooks, The Feeling, The Cribs, Wolfmother, The Go! Team, Richard Ashcroft, Editors, Feeder, Kula Shaker, Dirty Pretty Things, The Proclaimers, The Automatic, Jeff Mills, Bedouin Soundclash, Gomez, Divine Comedy, Fightstar, Lily Allen and Regina Spektor.
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 Glastonbury not being held in 2006 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 3 June 2006 at 9.00am, and they sold out in just under 10 minutes[2], further emphasising the festival's growing popularity.
[edit] Trivia
- 17,000 people attended the first festival, with just 2000 choosing to camp
- Each year 10 stages feature over 170 artists
- When El Presidente played on 8th July 2006 on the Main Stage, it was the fifth time lead singer Dante Gizzi has played the Festival; twice with Gun (of which he played bass in), and three times with El Presidente (2003, 2005 and 2006)
- T in the Park also provides the Balado crowd with a fun fair and global food village
- T in the Park is the only UK festival to have a stage dedicated to supporting homegrown talent, now known as the T Break Stage
- T in the Park has seen many impromptu performances and collaborations over the years, including Joe Strummer’s campsite busking in 1996 (a feat repeated by Badly Drawn Boy in 2002), Noel Gallagher joining Paul Weller on stage in 2001 to duet on some Jam classics, whilst in 2005 Brandon Flowers of The Killers joined his heroes New Order when he dueted on the track Crystal. Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, along with others, joined Franz Ferdinand for their song 'Outsiders' for a drum ensemble.
- T in the Park featured the first ever UK festival appearances from The Strokes, El Presidente and The Polyphonic Spree
- Travis played at the first ever T in the Park under their then-name of Glass Onion, on what was then the Caledonia Stage (now the T Break Stage).
- The Dance Tent was introduced in 1995 and became the Slam Tent in 1997
- The festival’s main arena now measures over 57 acres with an additional 80 acres making up the campsite areas
- Almost 3 million pints of Tennent’s Lager have been drunk at T in the Park since 1994
- 34 Multi-Dispense Units across the site pour 816 pints of Tennent’s Lager every minute
- T in the Park sported the country’s longest urinal back in 2004, which stretched the length of two football pitches
- Some 990 portaloos are situated elsewhere across the site
- Each year some 4000 people work behind the scenes to bring T in the Park together, some working year round
