Heartland Festival 2025 given the go-ahead by Perth and Kinross Council
Skerryvore and Kyle Falconer are among the acts due to perform at next month's festival in Pitlochry
The organiser of Pitlochry's Heartland Festival dreams of it growing to become a "mini Glastonbury for Scotland".
Ticket sales for this year's festival are up 40 per cent on last year's which - while generating £1.8 million for the local economy - is expected to operate at a loss for the second year running.
Organiser Graham Howie had not planned on running the festival for a second year - after losing so much last year - but agreed after festival-goers pleaded for the "best festival" to be repeated.
The festival director made the revelation as he presented the public entertainment licensing application for Heartland Festival 2025 to Perth and Kinross Licensing Committee on Monday, May 12. It is due to take place at Pitlochry's Recreation Ground from June 28 to 29.
Skerryvore, Kyle Falconer, Torridon and Nathan Evans and the St Phx Band are among the headline acts due to perform.
Councillors unanimously granted a public entertainment licence for this year's festival.
But Cllr Keith Allan challenged Mr Howie on running the festival at a financial loss.
Mr Howie said: "In years to come, I think there's a capacity there to bring the event up to 10,000 but if you go over that, you start to lose the community feel.
"If you get the ticket pricing right, there's no reason that the festival could be profitable. We have a little advertising this year. We haven't been able to get a sponsor so that's one of my key tasks for August onwards to try and find someone who will sponsor us, without us losing our integrity. It's a difficult call but I believe it's achievable.
"The ticketing is a very difficult balance. I priced the early bird tickets too cheaply last year. They were £34 for the weekend so we sold a lot - but it's come back to bite me now because the demand was clearly there. I think if we had sold them at £45/50 - bearing in mind that was half the price - we would have sold the same amount.
"I want to keep the prices low as it is a family event but it is a commercial event. If I don't make money then I can't invest in it and grow it."
Presenting the application to councillors, Heartland Festival Ltd owner Mr Howie said "the response from the community and the public was absolutely overwhelming" following last year's inaugural event.
He added: "One of the biggest compliments we got was that 'it didn't feel like a first-time event, it felt like an event that had been running for years and years'.
"I wasn't actually planning to do a second festival because I lost so much money on the first one but that's my loss and my loss to take.
"It became clear from the response on Facebook and with emails from people asking if we wanted to do this again. We actually put a post on Facebook asking that very question and - within 20 minutes - we had 300 replies saying 'please run the festival again - it's the best festival we ever went to'.
"It will still make a small loss this year but nothing like the amount of money that was lost the previous year. I'd hope that for 2026 and 2027 we'll be into a small profit and then be able to grow it accordingly in conjunction with normal business practices."
He cited a Scottish Government document which showed "a benefit of £1.8 million coming into the local economy this year".
He added: "Ticket sales for 2025 are 40 per cent up on 2024. We're now expecting in the region of 5000 people on Saturday and nearer 7000 on Sunday so it's a huge improvement on the previous year and shows the popularity of the event.
"Support from the community is even higher in numbers and stronger than it was the previous year and I'm very grateful to all the volunteers that help us put on the event."
The family-friendly festival is free to children under the age of 13. Teenagers are admitted half-price. There is even a dedicated children's area.
There is no camping on site but this year there will be shuttle buses running to four local campsites - Grandtully Station Campsite, Aberfeldy Caravan Park, Faskally Caravan Park and Blair Castle Caravan Park.
In addition, there will be a link-up with FlixBus and Citylink which connect the Highland Perthshire village to Scotland's major cities. The festival will finish an hour earlier at 10pm - rather than 11pm - to "minimise disturbance" and allow revellers to leave by bus.
The festival's exclusively all-Scottish line-up may however move towards being "predominantly Scottish".
Mr Howie said: "I don't know for how long we can keep it exclusively Scottish acts because we're starting to run out already but it will always be a predominantly Scottish act festival."
New and unknown acts can gain exposure on the Discovery Stage. Heartland Festival will then promote two of the best Discovery Stage acts to the Main Stage. This year sees last year's Discovery Stage acts David Delinquent and the IOUs as well as Copper Lungs take to the Main Stage.
In terms of refreshments, organisers have teamed up with local brewers Wasted Degrees as well as local food vendors and a local gin company.
Councillors were assured a "robust traffic management plan" would be in place and - while there will be some traffic restrictions in place to allow traffic to flow - there will be "no road closures".
The application received just one objection. A neighbouring resident - who lives 25 metres from the venue - raised concern about noise and disturbance.
An Environmental Health officer - who was on site throughout last year's event - said there were "no breaches" and the team received "no complaints".
She added: "I spoke to a number of neighbours round about and I think most of them were at the festival."
Appealing to councillors to grant the licence, Mr Howie said: "I could take this to Stirling or to Dunfermline but Pitlochry is my home.
"And I hope - with the continued support from the council and volunteers - that we can continue this festival and we can grow it into my dream to be a mini Glastonbury of Scotland for future.
"I have done everything I possibly can to minimise disturbance to the local community because I am part of that local community.
"If you were going to design a park area to put a festival on, the Recreation Ground is the perfect location."
The committee's convener, Highland Perthshire councillor Mike Williamson moved the application for approval. It was seconded by vice-convener Iain MacPherson and unanimously approved by the committee.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South Wales Argus
18 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
Pulp's Jarvis Cocker says his writer's block ‘led the band to grind to a halt'
The Britpop band, best known for their hit song Common People, will release their first album in over two decades, More, on June 6. The frontman, 61, said he wrote the lyrics before going into the studio to 'make things easier'. Speaking to the Big Issue, Cocker said: 'It's weird because we don't hang around with each other outside of the band any more, but I was aware of what the others were up to with various projects. But when you've made music with people for that many years, you have an unspoken understanding. 'I tried to make things easier by writing my lyrics before we went into the studio, for the first time ever. Because that's what kind of led the band to grind to a halt in the first place. 'It was taking me so long, I just felt embarrassed that the rest of the band were hanging around waiting for me to get my finger out.' The group split in 2002 but got back together for occasional live performances including headlining Wireless Festival in Hyde Park and playing at Glastonbury in 2011. Jarvis Cocker on stage at Finsbury Park in London (Victoria Jones/PA) They reunited again in 2023 for a series of UK and Ireland dates, but months before the tour was due to start bassist Steve Mackey died at the age of 56. Cocker added: 'It sounds a bit crass, but Steve passed away just before our last tour and it made me realise that we only have a finite amount of time to do the things you want to do. And for Steve, it was no longer an option, but it was for us.' Speaking about raising his son amid conversations about toxic masculinity he said: 'Women brought me up. All the males in our family just disappeared, and that had a significant effect on me. 'As for Andrew Tate, I did worry when my son first got his phone that he would encounter weird ideas about stuff. I thought, 'If I don't discuss certain subjects with him, then who will he learn from?'' The Sheffield group formed in 1978 and is currently made up of singer Cocker, keyboard player Candida Doyle, drummer Nick Banks and guitarist Mark Webber. The band struggled to find success in their early days, releasing It (1983), Freaks (1987) and Separations (1992), before finding their audience during the 1990s Britpop era with their first UK top 40 single, Do You Remember The First Time? and subsequent His 'N' Hers album, in 1994. In 1995, they gained nationwide fame with the release of the single Common People and the critically acclaimed Different Class album as well as their Glastonbury performance. They have since had five UK top 10 singles and two number one albums. The new album More is dedicated to bassist Mackey and is due to be released on June 6.
Glasgow Times
19 minutes ago
- Glasgow Times
Pulp's Jarvis Cocker says his writer's block ‘led the band to grind to a halt'
The Britpop band, best known for their hit song Common People, will release their first album in over two decades, More, on June 6. The frontman, 61, said he wrote the lyrics before going into the studio to 'make things easier'. Speaking to the Big Issue, Cocker said: 'It's weird because we don't hang around with each other outside of the band any more, but I was aware of what the others were up to with various projects. But when you've made music with people for that many years, you have an unspoken understanding. 'I tried to make things easier by writing my lyrics before we went into the studio, for the first time ever. Because that's what kind of led the band to grind to a halt in the first place. 'It was taking me so long, I just felt embarrassed that the rest of the band were hanging around waiting for me to get my finger out.' The group split in 2002 but got back together for occasional live performances including headlining Wireless Festival in Hyde Park and playing at Glastonbury in 2011. Jarvis Cocker on stage at Finsbury Park in London (Victoria Jones/PA) They reunited again in 2023 for a series of UK and Ireland dates, but months before the tour was due to start bassist Steve Mackey died at the age of 56. Cocker added: 'It sounds a bit crass, but Steve passed away just before our last tour and it made me realise that we only have a finite amount of time to do the things you want to do. And for Steve, it was no longer an option, but it was for us.' Speaking about raising his son amid conversations about toxic masculinity he said: 'Women brought me up. All the males in our family just disappeared, and that had a significant effect on me. 'As for Andrew Tate, I did worry when my son first got his phone that he would encounter weird ideas about stuff. I thought, 'If I don't discuss certain subjects with him, then who will he learn from?'' The Sheffield group formed in 1978 and is currently made up of singer Cocker, keyboard player Candida Doyle, drummer Nick Banks and guitarist Mark Webber. The band struggled to find success in their early days, releasing It (1983), Freaks (1987) and Separations (1992), before finding their audience during the 1990s Britpop era with their first UK top 40 single, Do You Remember The First Time? and subsequent His 'N' Hers album, in 1994. In 1995, they gained nationwide fame with the release of the single Common People and the critically acclaimed Different Class album as well as their Glastonbury performance. They have since had five UK top 10 singles and two number one albums. The new album More is dedicated to bassist Mackey and is due to be released on June 6.
Powys County Times
19 minutes ago
- Powys County Times
Pulp's Jarvis Cocker says his writer's block ‘led the band to grind to a halt'
Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker has said his writer's block 'led the band to grind to a halt'. The Britpop band, best known for their hit song Common People, will release their first album in over two decades, More, on June 6. The frontman, 61, said he wrote the lyrics before going into the studio to 'make things easier'. Speaking to the Big Issue, Cocker said: 'It's weird because we don't hang around with each other outside of the band any more, but I was aware of what the others were up to with various projects. But when you've made music with people for that many years, you have an unspoken understanding. 'I tried to make things easier by writing my lyrics before we went into the studio, for the first time ever. Because that's what kind of led the band to grind to a halt in the first place. 'It was taking me so long, I just felt embarrassed that the rest of the band were hanging around waiting for me to get my finger out.' The group split in 2002 but got back together for occasional live performances including headlining Wireless Festival in Hyde Park and playing at Glastonbury in 2011. They reunited again in 2023 for a series of UK and Ireland dates, but months before the tour was due to start bassist Steve Mackey died at the age of 56. Cocker added: 'It sounds a bit crass, but Steve passed away just before our last tour and it made me realise that we only have a finite amount of time to do the things you want to do. And for Steve, it was no longer an option, but it was for us.' Speaking about raising his son amid conversations about toxic masculinity he said: 'Women brought me up. All the males in our family just disappeared, and that had a significant effect on me. 'As for Andrew Tate, I did worry when my son first got his phone that he would encounter weird ideas about stuff. I thought, 'If I don't discuss certain subjects with him, then who will he learn from?'' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pulp (@welovepulp) The Sheffield group formed in 1978 and is currently made up of singer Cocker, keyboard player Candida Doyle, drummer Nick Banks and guitarist Mark Webber. The band struggled to find success in their early days, releasing It (1983), Freaks (1987) and Separations (1992), before finding their audience during the 1990s Britpop era with their first UK top 40 single, Do You Remember The First Time? and subsequent His 'N' Hers album, in 1994. In 1995, they gained nationwide fame with the release of the single Common People and the critically acclaimed Different Class album as well as their Glastonbury performance. They have since had five UK top 10 singles and two number one albums. The new album More is dedicated to bassist Mackey and is due to be released on June 6.
