Belladrum breathing space
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SO what was the most amazing thing at the eighth Belladrum Festival this year.
Space, possibly.
As well as being the theme which took the fancy dressers into the space suits and alien dweeb heads, the site itself had grown a bit more room.
Though now the only trouble is, there's so much more to see and do that it is all getting a little bit stressful.
And with the tweeters and bloggers constantly on top of everything almost before it's happened, there's less option to feel you've discovered something yourself.
So busy are people reporting back to the world about every little thing, you can't help wondering if there is still just time left to enjoy a newly-discovered band or that great talk about in the Verb Garden.
Favourite bands were just as tough as usual to track down when there is so much else to be sampled.
New favourites discovered on the Grassroots stage are St Saviour with their energetic windmill-armed dancing frontwoman.
But there was a lot of girl power in that tent – from the impressive Barclaycard Mercury Prize nominated album of Anna Calvi to Rachel Sermanni, more confident but no less charming than she was a little earlier in the day last year.
But as well as Texas – who were a barnstorming revelation of a headliner on Friday with hit songs a-go-go and Sharleen Spiteri in sparkling form – Friday belonged to Ed Sheeran.
He told the story behind his hit The A Team and homeless girl Angel. And he speed-rapped his way through You Need Me, I Don't Need You with its witty lines like "The music papers say I'm up and coming, like a f***ing elevator". But the crowd loved him in the Hothouse tent – so much so that the tent was packed with 10-deep standing outside.
The Caio Bella fashion stage made its debut and the student fashion from the Scottish Academy of Fashion proved a hit with the young crowd watching the show on Friday.
Also appearing for the first time was the Jock The Reaper Stage with guests including DJ Grammaphone (69), The LED squirting it up on Saturday night.
And for those who remembered Ross-shire band Kobi, there was a chance to catch one of the first gigs of the new, improved version. Swirling, moody soundscapes – which had seemed a bit of a dream to achieve live in a bright tent on a summer's day – delivered.
Another new idea for this year was the series of bandstands – or beached boats – with a selection of local musicians getting the chance to appear around the site at different places, to give punters a taste of what they could do.
But there was also the usual selection of slightly unusual artists with their very own take on music – and if you shut your eyes and listened to CW Stoneking and His Primitive Horn Orchestra in the Grassroots tent on Saturday, you could have been transported back to an era of old 78 records.
And the brilliant idea of getting the main stage crowd shaking their booty with fitness instructor Steve Agyei was a fun 15-minute interlude in all the music.
A couple of Inverness bands traded up to the main stage. He Slept On 57 made an energetic opener for the main stage just as the main arena opened on Friday, while Iain McLaughlin And The Outsiders made a rocked-up giant of a sound on Saturday lunchtime.
And another highlight of the weekend was seeing veteran Inverness band Stetsonhead pulling in a great crowd and hosting a special performance of the Invershneckie song with guest Steve Kelly over all the way from Denmark to join them.
Disappointments included Deacon Blue headlining on Saturday.
The weather was against them as the set worked through, but the flat start never really saw audience energy take off until numbers such as the most appropriate Raintown and hits such as Wages Day, Chocolate Girl, Real Gone Kid and Twist & Shout.
It was a proud moment for the will-not-be-defeated crowd who gritted their teeth and hung on through the heavy rain for the inevitable big finisher Dignity.
But gazing up through stair-rods of rain to the final fireworks, the mystery of the fireworks like hearts (how do they do that) is no easier to solve this year.
