2007 may be the first year of the three day T in the Park but the festival has always centred on the long-haul and the full length party and with another record breaking attendance figure, it shows no sign of stopping. In fact, the biggest selling point of the festival is its name and reputation because on many scores it has been defeated by other festivals in Scotland but when it comes to pulling the punters, theres only one winner. T boasts of the Slam Tent but Rockness had Daft Punk. T is rightly proud of enticing maverick genius Brian Wilson but Indian Summer has scheduled Daniel Johnson, an even more elusive hero. And in all honesty, the Connect Festival (from the same promoters) has the best line-up of the summer, yet every other festival has struggled to sell tickets at the same point when T tickets are going for crazy amounts on ebay.Many people now centre their summer plans around the festival and the extra evening has somewhat legitimised the partying that has always went on prior to the Saturday kick-off.
It does pander to the mainstream, nothing with music as its core belief should have Lily Allen on its Main Stage but at the same time, where else would up-and-coming local country-rock maestros The Attic Lights get a crack at such an early stage in their career? Where else would Andy Weatherall be playing at 11.30am? And such is the beauty of T, there is the mainstream element like Razorlight, Snow Patrol and the Killers but its possible to ignore these acts and catch something a bit more interesting instead if thats whats important to you. Then again, the festival attracts a large amount of people whose focus on the music is way down their list of priorities for the festival, its almost as if the ticket offers some justification for the partying that lies ahead.
For the first time, a chink of discord arrived at T in the Park with the Friday being blighted by heavy rain and horror stories of traffic jams and people being stuck for up to 8 hours on the road. With the car parks being closed off for safety, cars being abandoned and patrons walking for miles to reach the festival, Friday was fraut with difficulties. From the Saturday onwards, apart from the mud that littered the site, the weather held and any potential disaster was averted. As the Scottish people will tell you, it takes more than mud and rain to prevent a party, and so it proved.
The thing that strikes about the 2007 festival is that its not going to be remembered for the music. It'll be about the mud, it'll be about Amy Winehouses no show, it'll be about one of Snow Patrol nearly missing the gig due to a drug misdemeanour and by first read of the Scottish tabloids, its about Beth Ditto peeling off her tights and showing off her ample figure. With continual complaints about the sound quality throughout the weekend, its maybe the first year a bit of the gloss has come off the festival, consider it the first signs of the terrible teenage years. That said the promoters will point towards record sales and increasing numbers and reason that things are still going well. And that would be right but there just may be the sense that the festival is losing sight of its musical core...or that could just be the moaning attitude of someone who has spent just under half of his summers and all the ones since alcohol became relevant at the festival.
Brian Wilson still put on a show that touched on the some of the greatest tracks of the past forty years, the Slam tent still threw in some legendary moments (and a DJ Shadow vs Cut Chemist set that divided opinion greatly) and up and coming acts like Reverend and The Makers managed to lay down a marker for future world-dominance so theres still a lot going right for T in The Park.
With the first batch of 2008 tickets going on sale on Tuesday morning (and likely having sold out before you read this article) its apparent that T is transcending the outline of a mere music festival and has become a cultural phenomenon. 2008 is likely to bring its own share of highlights and letdowns but as the festival enters its 15th year its virtually impossible to imagine a Scottish summer without it. And as St Judes Infirmary (one of the greatest Scottish acts yet to grace the festival...heres hoping for 2008) would sing, "Theres no summer like a Scottish summer." Similarly, theres no festival quite like T, and you can take that as a compliment or an insult depending on your viewpoint.