Despite extremely bad weather conditions making T in the Park’s first day one of the most difficult starts to the event yet, in the end it was hailed as one of the most enjoyable by fans, organisers and the emergency services on site.
80,000 fans had attended the festival daily with 60,000 people camping and the atmosphere on site was described as upbeat and positive which was helped by the sun finally emerging early on Saturday and seeing the event through to the end.
Says Colin Rodger, T in the Park’s Event Manager: "Friday was unavoidably a difficult start to T in the Park but it really is testament to the hard work of the event team, emergency services, security and the local council that we were able to get the festival back on track for what turned out to be an amazing weekend. This is in no way least down to the co-operation and attitude of the fans who really pulled through with a Dunkirk spirit and made Saturday and Sunday a resounding success".
The onsite police and medical teams reported similar levels of stats as in 2006, and agreed that the crowd this year was one of the best natured they had seen for a number of years.
Chief Superintendent Matt Hamilton confirmed that arrests were once again down from the previous year from 70 to 64 with 30 people being taken into custody for a number of minor offences.
Ian Golding, Head of medical services confirmed that the hospital tent treated 617 fans over the weekend which is slightly up on last years figure of 490 although this is considered in line with the increased capacity. 53 patients were transferred to NHS hospitals off site which is well below the norm for the event.
Says Ian Golding: "In terms of working at the event, this has been the best one for us yet. The audience was really positive throughout the weekend and as always there was some fantastic team work between everyone backstage. There was a wide range of ailments and conditions dealt with but there was nothing serious to report."
There were 4000 people working behind the scenes at the festival with more than 400 police officers on duty and over 1400 stewards and security staff. The festival’s clean up operation began early this morning and will involve removing 8500m of fortress fencing, 2000m of temporary road, 30000m of Heras fencing, 1050 portaloos, 180 portacabins, 150 marquees and 11 big tops.
400 tonnes of rubbish was removed in 2006 and this year the waste has been reduced to 350 tonnes with 40% of that being recycled.
The majority of the campers left early this morning with the remaining people expected to be cleared by 2pm. As usual an interesting array of items have been left behind on the site including two sets of false teeth, three supermen costumes, a spiderman mask, 1000 beach balls, 32 swimming costumes and 499 wellington boots.
Says Festival Director Geoff Ellis: "I thought there were some really outstanding performances over the weekend that will go down in T history such as Brian Wilson, Paolo Nutini and an incredible closing set by Snow Patrol last night, that they said had raised the bar once again for their favourite ever gig."
"My prediction for Snow Patrol’s Run to be the festival anthem was definitely accurate although it did have real competition from The Fratellis’ Chelsea Dagger which was one of the loudest singalongs I have ever heard at the event."
"I was also particularly proud of the new Healthy T area, which completely surpassed our expectations in terms of the huge volume of people coming to the area to try the food and watch demos from the likes of The Hairy Bikers and Martin Wishart."
"We also announced yesterday that 40,000 tickets for T in the Park 2008 will go on sale tomorrow and I would urge those fans who do not manage to get tickets in the first batch, not to turn to unofficial sources but instead to sign up to tinthepark.com and wait for news in early 2008 with regards to the on sale date for the next batch."
George Kyle, Head of sponsorship and marketing at founding partners Tennent’s Lager said: "Once again this has been an absolutely amazing weekend with too many incredible performances to list although a personal highlight had to be Brian Wilson on Saturday night."
"There were also some outstanding performances from some of the artists that performed in last year’s T Break Tent including The Dykeenies, Paolo Nutini and The View, while this year’s line-up definitely uncovered some fantastic new talent that you may just see much further up the bill next year."
The mood on site has been terrific and we have been really encouraged by the excellent response we had to our cup recycling scheme which saw thousands of fans return their empty cups in a bad to help the festival be as green as possible. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2008!"
T in the Park 2008 will go on sale tomorrow at 9am at this year’s prices as a special early bird offer. The festival will return to Balado by Kinross, and will take place on Friday 11th, Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th July 2008. The Friday night entertainment in the main arena will once again only be open to campers. A maximum of two tickets will be allowed per person by calling Ticketmaster on 0870 169 0100 or online at www.ticketmaster.co.uk or www.tinthepark.com
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