Music festivals are a growth industry in Scotland

Sunday Herald - The best venue in the world? It’s Scotland: "Experts are even claiming that the events are creating a new social trend of serial festival-hoppers and enriching Scotland's cultural life.

'This summer will be amazing,' said Paul Bush OBE, chief operating officer of Event Scotland. We are keen to demonstrate that, while festivals are economic benefits, they also bring social and even environmental opportunities.

'Festivals are economically important - as a snapshot, the MTV awards, which were hosted in Edinburgh in 2003, brought in £8.8 million to the Scottish economy.

The economic boost that the various festivals will bring is likely to run into hundreds of millions of pounds by September. While a strong appreciation of music and a culture of live bands in Scotland are contributing factors, the boom has also been fuelled by a supportive public sector and no shortage of talented music entrepreneurs.

'Festivals of all kinds are definitely a growth area, and Scotland is very lucky in that local authorities and other public bodies actually want to help events,' said Jane Ali-Knight, head of the festival and events management degree programme at Napier University. 'South of the Border and elsewhere, organisers quickly run up against a lot of red tape. There is encouragement for festivals in Scotland which is a huge plus, and we are also lucky to have entrepreneurs such as Geoff Ellis and Pete Irvine who have pushed and pulled some events into being.'"

Scotland's Music Scene Is Booming

Sold Out How Scotlands Music Scene Is Booming (from Sunday Herald): "SCOTLAND'S LIVE music scene is in the middle of a boom period according to industry experts, with a higher than ever number of sold-out gigs taking place across the country in the next few months.

"Bands and promoters using the internet to alert fans to gigs, more capacity for live music - especially in Glasgow - and a revived culture of audiences experiencing live music are being credited for the increase in the number of concerts being held in Scotland....

"Concert capacity in the west of Scotland and Aberdeen has increased in recent years, with new venues such as Glasgow's ABC and Carling Academy now holding a number of busy events each week....

"[Geoff Ellis, chief executive of DF Concerts] said 'Mainly the product is very, very good at the moment. You can't beat the experience of being at a gig, and venues are much better than 10 years ago. The ante has been raised in terms of venues giving value for money and instead of clubbing, live music is really at the fore now.'"

music scene
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One man's music festival

Home is where the festival is - Sunday Times:"Stuck at home with young children and unable to get to gigs, Neil McKenna came up with an ingenious solution. The music lover launched his own festival.

"From humble origins five years ago, the Darvel music festival in rural Ayrshire has grown from a handful of performances by local pub bands into a 12-day event attracting more than 30 acts from around the world....

"Despite its growth spurt, McKenna, 44, and his wife, Sheila, still run the event as a labour of love. They do everything themselves, from finding sponsors to arranging the PA system and the lighting, printing programmes, organising a liquor licence, transport and accommodation.

"The couple like to make the musicians feel at home, quite literally, by offering many of them a bed for the night at their comfortable Edwardian house on the outskirts of town....

"In a smart marketing move, McKenna insists that any band signing up for Darvel cannot play Glasgow, so that fans in Scotland’s biggest city are forced to make the 30-minute drive down the M77 to see their favourite acts."

Buzz doesn't always carry over from one place to another

Guardian Unlimited Arts | | MySpace and the Fringe are great at creating a buzz - but when it comes to art, the mob are rarely right: "Every year, the [Edinburgh Fringe] festival throws up a handful of theatre companies and comedians who become the talk of the town. While there are critics who contribute to this, word of mouth plays a big part. Stick hundreds of thousands of festival-goers together in a small city, all of them looking for a cultural fix, and they're going to listen to recommendations from the person they sit next to in the pub or the cab driver at the hotel.

"That may create an exciting bubble of gossip and rumour during the Fringe, but it doesn't seem to be a great way to locate work that can thrive in another environment. Sadly, what we're going to see between now and Christmas - as we see every year - is artists who have been the hottest new thing at this year's festival turning up in London and finding that their shows will be met with either a lukewarm response or total crash-and-burn."

Music and national identity

Here's an essay on music and national identity.

Popular music policy and the articulation of regional identities. The case of Scotland and Ireland: " To put this another way, because music is ubiquitous — we cannot avoid it even if we want to — it is accepted as a kind of public property: 'our music' is something which belongs to us, whether individually or because we are members of a particular nation or community. What is available for us to hear (whether as consumers in record shops or as audiences for radio and television shows or simply as citizens at work and play) thus becomes a factor in our sense of ourselves as members of a public."