T TOMORROW – A LOOK BACK AT T IN THE PARK’S BALADO YEARS

The final ever T in the Park to be held at Balado gets underway tomorrow, and festival organisers DF Concerts, founding partner Tennent’s Lager and a daily crowd of 85,000 music fans are getting ready to mark the end of an era with a huge send-off party for the festival’s much-loved Kinross-shire home over Friday 11th – Sunday 13th July.
 
Fans are snapping up tickets with only a day to go, and due to phenomenal demand, organisers have released an additional batch of Saturday and Sunday day tickets, which are available now from www.tinthepark.com.
 
The campsite gates open on Thursday night, with the Thursday entertainment getting underway with THE MIDNIGHT BEAST Presents A DIRTY WEEKEND in the Scottish Sun Big Top, before over 200 artists from across the globe descend on Balado for T in the Park. The biggest ever Friday bill will see fan favourites Biffy Clyro headline the festival for the first time. They’ll make T in the Park history by becoming the act which has played the festival the most, with what will be their 10th performance. 
 
Calvin Harris will close the Main Stage on Saturday 12th July – a day which will also see performances from Paolo Nutini and Pharrell Williams – before Arctic Monkeys become the last ever act to play T in the Park at Balado when they close the festival on the Sunday night.
 
Other performers over the weekend include the headliners of T in the Park’s first year at Balado – The Charlatans and Paul Weller – who return for the final Balado outing, with both acts taking to the stage 18 years to the day after they performed at the festival’s debut in Kinross-shire, on Saturday 12th July and Sunday 13th July respectively.
 
Festival Director Geoff Ellis said: “This weekend, we mark the end of an era. The Balado site has never looked more beautiful, and we’re getting ready to give our much-loved home for the past 18 years the incredible send-off it deserves. We’re really looking forward to celebrating one last time here with the greatest audience in the world, and can’t wait to welcome you all as we throw Balado a farewell party.”
 
George Kyle, Head of Sponsorship for Tennent’s Lager, said: “Tennent’s have been the T in T in the Park from the very first year at Strathclyde Country Park, right through to today, as we get ready to bid a fond farewell to Balado. As founding partner of T in the Park, we’ve enjoyed some wonderful memories here, and I’m sure this weekend will be very special for everyone involved.”
 
Ahead of T in the Park’s move to pastures new within the beautiful grounds of Strathallan Castle in 2015, here’s look back at the legendary Balado Years.
 
The Balado Years – in numbers
•    21 years ago, T in the Park was born, cofounded by festival organisers DF Concerts and founding partner Tennent’s Lager in 1994.
•    For 18 years, T in the Park has been held at its much-loved Balado home (between 1994 – 1996 it was held at Strathclyde Country Park).
•    Since 1997, Balado has welcomed over 2.7 million festival goers to the glorious Kinross-shire countryside – that’s more than half of the population of Scotland.
•    More than 2800 artists have played Balado over the 18 years, including Foo Fighters, The Stone Roses, Rihanna, The Killers, The Who, Daft Punk, Rage Against the Machine, Kraftwerk, James Brown, Kylie Minogue, Oasis, Blur, Blondie, Jay Z, Beyoncé and Eminem.
•    Over the past 18 years, Team T has featured over 126,000 members, with around 7000 people coming together to make the festival happen each year.
•    Approximately 8,500 flags have been pitched in the Balado countryside over the years.
•    Over the years, more than 540km of fencing has been placed at TITP – that’s 61 times the height of Mount Everest. That’s not including the 153km of perimeter fencing which has surrounded the site – that’s the equivalent of the West Highland Way.
•    Over the festival weekend, T in the Park becomes the 5th largest town and the largest city centre in Scotland over the festival weekend.
•    Biffy Clyro have played Balado – and T in the Park – the most times, with their Main Stage headline set on Friday taking their total to 10.
•    There have been 44 Balado sun-sets at T in the Park.
•    Over 315,000 tents have been pitched in the legendary Balado campsite
•    T in the Park has won 17 major awards throughout the Balado Years, including Pollstar’s International Festival of the Year 2013.
 
The Balado Years – some highlights
•    1997 – T in the Park made its Balado debut, receiving a warm welcome from local landowners, the council, police and residents, with over 25,000 festival-goers flocking to Kinross from all over the country. This was also the year that the Slam Tent was born, and that Polarbear, now known as Snow Patrol, made their T in the Park debut on the T Break Stage.
•    1998 – T in the Park celebrated its 5th year and Robbie Williams stole the show with his first official appearance at the event. Other names included The Prodigy, Beastie Boys, Ian Brown, Portishead, Natalie Imbruglia, Idlewild, Travis and Stereophonics. Pulp’s Common People provided a rousing finale to the weekend.
•    1999 – The Manic Street Preachers made their memorable tribute to Glasgow’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut from the Main Stage, thanking them for being the first venue to give the band hot food on tour and Robert Carlyle turned up to see Blur, fresh from filming Bond film The World Is Not Enough, in which he played Bond villain Renard.
•    2000 – A momentous occasion for Travis, who played the first T in the Park as an unsigned band and this year closed the Main Stage. Relatively unknown bands Coldplay and Toploader performed on the King Tut’s stage.
•    2001 – This is the year that Noel Gallagher came to hang out, and ended up taking Stage Two by surprise when he joined Paul Weller for an impromptu acoustic set.
•    2002 – Nine years after playing mid bill in the King Tut’s Tent, Oasis returned to headline the Main Stage on Saturday, while Nicole Appleton challenged Bobby Gillespie to a dance off at the side of the stage.
•    2003 – T in the Park’s 10th year – Backstage resembled a zoo as the Super Furry Animals and show-stealers The Flaming Lips added a little animal magic to their sets, with a host of people including Har Mar Superstar dressing up in furry costumes to form the dancing menagerie that joined Wayne Coyne and co on the Main Stage.
•    2004 – Just one year after opening the Main Stage, conquering heroes The Darkness returned to close the event after David Bowie had to pull out due to ill health. Snow Patrol arguably delivered the event’s highlight as they headlined the King Tut’s Tent and performed Run in perfect unison with the crowd, leading singer Gary Lightbody to shed a tear as the festival came to a close.
•    2005 – Green Day flew the flag for the punk contingent, make the years of three fans as they invited them to play on stage. James Brown showed fans exactly why he was hailed as the ‘Godfather of Soul’, New Order played a career spanning set including Joy Division classics before declaring the Balado faithful to be ‘the best audience in the world’ and treating them to yet another amazing T in the Park collaboration, as they were joined onstage by Brandon Flowers of The Killers in an electrifying performance of Crystal.
•    2006 – Kasabian’s Serge only just made it back in time for their climactic encore, such was his delight at his native Italy being proved victors in the World Cup – and proceeded to play the rest of the band’s set shrouded in his nation’s flag. And surely one of the event’s proudest moment came as The Who’s Pete Townsend declared from the Main Stage “This has been the best festival experience ever. You guys have been better than Woodstock or the Isle of Wight festival”.
•    2007 – The biggest year yet saw the campsite capacity increase to 60,000, the festival capacity to 80,000 and the event itself to 3 days. Snow Patrol closed the festival and gave fellow T in the Park veterans Biffy Clyro a massive shout out as they encouraged the audience to join them in an ear shattering chorus of ‘Mon the Biffy’.
•    2008 – T’s 15th birthday saw 180 acts take to 12 stages over 3 days and Ian Brown went on to give his performance a certain Scottish flavour when he was joined in King Tut’s Wah Wah Tent by a bagpiper, shouting “Scotland, I love you back” as fans repeatedly chanted his name.
•    2009 – Worldwide heavyweights Kings of Leon and The Killers shared the bill with home grown heroes Razorlight, Blur and Florence and the Machine, plus Lady Gaga made a big impression on the crowd, dressed in sci-fi silver micro, performing atop a denim-clad Vespa and flanked by dancers in black kilts, and comeback kings The Specials celebrated the 30th anniversary of the release of their eponymous debut album with a memorable set.
•    2010 – Tickets sold out in 90 minutes and Kasabian’s lead singer Tom Meighan dedicated songs to the visionary few who saw the band at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow in 2003, while lead guitarist Serge Pizzorno was a vision in a blinding white suit.
•    2011 – This year saw the Foo Fighters close the festival in the perfect way – as the final notes of Everlong ran out across the Balado fields, Dave Grohl shared the stage with the solitary T in the Park piper to watch the closing fireworks.
•    2012 – History was made at T in the Park 2012 as The Stone Roses made their first UK festival appearance of their second coming. A record capacity crowd of 85,000 music lovers per day flocked to Kinross for three days of incredible music.
•    2013 – The festival’s 20th year festivities were celebrated by over 200 artists, from Mumford & Sons, Rihanna and The Killers to Earth, Wind & Fire and Kraftwerk, all entertaining the legendary T in the Park crowd whilst basking in the glorious sunshine that shone from the Kinross-shire skies. With an eclectic mix of global superstars, the hottest new talent and musical pioneers, T20th had something for everyone.
 
T in the Park 2014 tickets are on sale now, and available from www.tinthepark.com or www.ticketmaster.co.uk or 08444 999 990.
 
T IN THE PARK TICKETS
Ticket type                                                      Price (all subject to booking fee)
Friday day ticket                                                £82.50 (full day of performances)
Saturday day ticket                                            £82.50
Sunday day ticket                                               £82.50
Weekend (no camping)                                       £184
Weekend and Camping                                       £194
Thursday Weekend and Camping                        £205 An additional £11 to the Weekend and Camping price

VIP tickets                
VIP Friday day ticket                                          £142.50
VIP Saturday day ticket                                      £142.50
VIP Sunday day ticket Sun                                  £142.50
VIP Weekend (no camping)                                 £315.00
VIP Thursday & Weekend Camping                     £335.00 (access to general campsite)
VIP Weekend Camping                                       £325.00 (access to general campsite)

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