A SCOTTISH festival has apologised after attendees were forced to wait in queues of as long as five hours before entering – meaning some missed out on entire music sets.
The Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, which is held on the Belladrum Estate in Kiltarlity near Inverness, said it was “incredibly disappointed” by the lengthy traffic queues that enraged fans.
Acts were also caught in the queues, which the festival suggested was down to poor weather and people choosing to arrive early.
"Didn't manage to get there for any of the music tonight thanks to the traffic hold-ups," one woman told the Ross-shire journal.
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Another person said on social media: “We were five hours in a queue, missed all the acts we wanted to see, and when we did get in, every portaloo was overflowing – on the first night of the festival!
“Please get something sorted for the next two days!”
Emma Knox, an SNP councillor for Aird and Loch Ness, said that the roads around Inchmore, Kiltarlity, and Beauly were “gridlocked”.
She added: "I am in contact with the roads teams at the council and the festival organisers to find out more and the situation is being monitored to minimise further delays."
Sooo worth the mental journey up from Glasgow today! Just incredible Belladrum ❤️ Can’t wait to see some of you later in the year when we hit Inverness Leisure Centre on December 8th 👍 pic.twitter.com/q73dFfci4i
— SKERRYVORE (@SKERRYVORE) July 27, 2023
In a statement, Belladrum organisers said: “We are incredibly disappointed by the traffic issues that so many of the festival goers and local people experienced.
“As reported, we have had good ticket sales, but it was a very small percentage increase on last year and nothing else in the plan was changed.
“We have used the same routes, the same traffic management and parking companies and the same number of police officers in the same locations.
“We had a very large number of people arrive early and we believe that this, along with the wet weather this morning, was the cause of the long queues which then continued throughout the day.
“We can assure you we will be having a long debrief meeting to work out how to manage incoming traffic in 2024 should we have similar conditions to deal with so that we avoid a repeat.”
Around 25,000 people bought tickets to the festival, according to reports.
The festival is due to run from Thursday 27 to Saturday 29.
Bastille, KT Tunstall, Travis, and Peat and Diesel are all set to take the stage, while Sigrid, Sam Ryder, and Skerryvore were among the acts who played on Thursday.
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