Now that the dust has settled on Rockness and Nessie is safe to come back and play with the locals, its time to take stock on whether the festival was a success and the only answer can be a definitive maybe.
The setting was beautiful, overlooking the Loch and surrounded by hills and green scenery, when the sun shone down on the Saturday, it was impossible not to be uttering the word wow when looking around. As with T In The Park, there always seems enough people willing to party to make for a great environment and the atmosphere over the weekend was spot on as well.
With a line-up combining strong elements of dance and indie, there was every encouragement for people to get on with having a good time but for all that was brilliant about it, there were some aspects that really need to be developed for next year.
The size of the tents were deplorable. Even aside from the Daft Punk fiasco, a ten thousand capacity tent, for one of the most highly anticipated sets of the summer was bad but throughout the weekend, all the tents were filled to capacity or were being poorly managed by a stewarding who never seemed to know their job.
It can seem churlish to criticise this but when standing outside at Erol Alkans set, seeing more than enough space within the tent to move freely but being prevented from entering the tent by stewards, who were probably working to orders, well it was just frustrating. There was a sense that the stewards and the police presence on site were there for their own enjoyment as much as keeping the fee-paying punters safe and secure. If both of they achievements can be obtained, then great but if not, its a concern. Likewise, the amount of mis-information being delivered by stewards at the bus and taxi was just wrong and could have made a bad situation much worse.
And it may come down to personal choices but some of the set-lists were baffling, depriving many people from seeing some quality acts but when is there ever universal agreement for a festivals scheduling, so lets not hold that against anyone.
But hey, theres a lot of issues there that can be rectified next year or are out of the control of the organisers, so was Rockness a success? The locals certainly thought so, with one local papers Monday headline running "ROCKNESS A SUCCESS DESPITE DEATH." Yes, not even a death on site on the Saturday night could prevent the weekend being a success in the eyes of some, although for many others this heading may have came straight from 'The Day Today' or 'Brasseye.'
And overall, its hard to come out with a strong opinion about the weekend. The R13 party had an absolute ball over the weekend but how much of this was down to alcohol and the setting and the weather as opposed to an over-riding quality of bands, it should be remembered its an event still in its infancy and is still going through teething problems.
If they can keep pulling out major acts like Daft Punk, and keep dragging people up to see probably the most amazing Festival setting in the UK, then we can only hope that Rockness is allowed time to grow and develop its own sense of style and fun.