Great Festivals in Scotland.

Scotland is not the first place people think of when it comes to festivals but the country actually hosts over 200 of some of the most diverse and interesting festivals. With a steep cultural history, friendly and legendary hospitality Scotland is a great place to visit along with stunning scenery and a festival scene that is certainly thriving.

The most well-known festivals most people think of when Scotland is mentioned is the Edinburgh Fringe and the Military Tattoo. The Fringe Festival was established in 1947 and is one of the worlds most renowned arts and comedy festivals, it spans 25 days with 55,000 performances of 3,548 shows in 317 venues attracting over 3million visitors. It’s a festival that everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime. Aside from this famous festival Scotland hosts many other events, many linked to significant dates throughout the year: 

• St Andrews Day
• Hogmanay
• Burns Night
• Highland Games 

Throughout the country these events and dates are significant for the local communities and spawn larger multi-day festivals as a result where visitors can expect traditional tartan costumes, Scottish dancing and copious amounts of the world's best whiskies. It's not all traditional folk style events, Scotland also hosts some great music festivals too including the following: 

Belladrum Tartan Heart is a mixed genre festival and takes place every year near Inverness usually around July attracting 20,000 visitors but unfortunately this year has been cancelled returning in 2022.

Hebridean Celtic Festival also called HebCelt usually takes place in July each year and features the best Celtic music regularly attracting 16,000 visitors.

Celtic Connections is a long running Scottish folk music festival located in Glasgow taking place in January and February each year it attracts more than 130,000 visitors annually.

Glasgow Riverside Festival is a mixed genre event with 14,000 visitors usually held around May each year.

TRNSMT Festival in Glasgow is one of Scotland largest mixed genre festivals with 120,000 visitors and is scheduled to take place in September this year. 

Other notable but smaller music festivals include: 

• Dumfries Jazz festival
• March into Pitlochry Festival
• Mull Music
• Sky Live Festival
• Orkney Folk Festival
• Oban Live Festival
• Glasgow International Folk Festival
• Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival 

The variety, number and size of festivals taking place in Scotland each year remains impressive and provides great opportunities for keen event goers, artists and sponsors who wish to get involved. The weather may be inclement at times and the climate cooler but this can easily be overlooked when considering the variety and new experiences available for those interested. Scotland is still an integral part of the United Kingdom but retains a strong national identity and this is reflected in the festivals they host every year. 

For any event organiser planning their music festival using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their festival logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors guestlists and ticketing. 

Image by luxstorm from Pixabay

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