T IN THE PARK 2016 came to an end yesterday, with American rockers the Red Hot Chili Peppers wowing the mud-covered thousands dancing at festival’s main stage.
The rain had been near continuous, but this is Scotland, and a Scottish festival, so the 80,000 or so music fans who had decamped to the Strathallan Estate were well prepared.
The festival has been overshadowed by the death of two teenagers early on Friday morning. Police are treating the deaths as unexplained but say there are no suspicious circumstances. They are not believed to be connected.
There have also been reports of violence, with videos of youngsters brawling in the campsite and festival ground going viral on social media. One video on the Being Oot Yer Nut At T Facebook group showed at least ten people fighting, hitting each other with chairs and tents being trampled. Another clip showed scrapping in the backstage VIP area, and in another men can be seen fighting at the front of the stage during a set.
In a video of an unconscious man being taken out of the campsite on a stretcher, the people filming can be heard callously talking about how they’ll be uploading the video to the Oot Yer Nut page.
By 2pm yesterday, Police Scotland had reported 40 arrests across the event, a decrease from this time in 2015.
Event Silver Day Commander Superintendent Conrad Trickett said: “As we enter our final day of the festival there have been no major issues and, as of early this morning, there have been 40 arrests. We are also pleased to report that crimes of violence are lower than last year. We will continue to work closely with all partner agencies involved to ensure the event comes to a safe and enjoyable end.”
Hospital tent visits were also down on last year with 311 to date, the majority of which were for minor ailments.
Transport at the site, which was beset by difficulties last year, seemed to have improved, with only few complaints.
As well the Red Hot Chili Pipers, the final day saw performances from Major Lazer, Craig David’s TS5, LCD Soundsystem, Faithless and Slaves.
One Scottish band playing the festival got an unexpected boost when one of the biggest musicians in the world recommended them.
Louis Tomlinson, from boyband One Direction, told his 22 million followers on Twitter to check out Be Charlotte, the group formed by Dundonian musician Charlotte Brimner.
He said: “Today at T in the Park on BBC Intro stage. 645pm @iambecharlotte will be performing! Really cool vibe!””
Brimner, 18, said: “So last week Louis Tomlinson followed me on Twitter and that kind of sparked a bit of a frenzy thing going on. It just made me realise how insane all this is.
“And today before I went on stage he shared our BBC Introducing session and it’s just gone a little bit crazy. I don’t really know what to say.”
It is not known how Tomlinson discovered the group, but Be Charlotte were one of The National’s acts to watch in 2016.
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