Thousands expected at Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival

It's Bella's 20th anniversary!

Image of last year's event
Author: Liam RossPublished 25th Jul 2024

More than 20,000 people are expected at the Highlands biggest music event as Belladrum gets underway later.

The three day event will feature the likes of The Sugababes, James Arthur and Deacon Blue between today and Saturday.

The festival was first held in 2004, and has featured the likes of Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi, Biffy Clyro and many more over the last two decades.

Last year, there were major traffic issues getting into the festival site with some waiting five hours or more.

However, Event Organiser Dougie Brown has outlined the changes they've made for this year.

He said: "Obviously the traffic issues last year is something we've completely not shied way from and something we don't want to see a repeat of.

"We've worked closely with Highland Council, Police, all the roads departments and we've put lots of procedures in place.

"This includes the ticketed car parking system, a separate entrance for staff and artists that takes them off the main entrance everyone else comes in.

"We have doubled the amount of entrances from the internal roads into the car park, which will hopefully speed it all up.

"We're confident we've put measures in place so that we hopefully don't see a repeat of the issues of last year."

As the festival marks its 20th anniversary, we also caught up with founder Joe Gibbs who's looking back on two decades of Bella.