SCOTLAND’S BIGGEST music festival, T in the Park, scooped the top prize at a prestigious awards ceremony last night when it was crowned the UK’s best festival for the second year running.

The UK Festival Awards 2006 handed out honours at its first live ceremony, which celebrated the best of festivals and artist festival performance, at the Carling Academy in London.

Thanks to a combination of astute marketing and technical innovation, T in the Park was nominated in six categories, the most for any single event.

Last night’s coronation as Best Major Festival added further fuel to the event’s reputation.

The event started out at Strathclyde Country Park 13 years ago, with an audience of just 17,000, but now has 75,000 music fans each day at Balado, near Kinross.

Geoff Ellis, CEO of DF Concerts/Big Day Out, who organise T in the Park, attended last night’s event to find out who had won the public vote.

A spokesperson for DF Concerts/Big Day Out said that everyone involved with T in the Park was ecstatic.

“We are absolutely delighted to win this award for the 2nd year running. We would like to say a massive thank you to all the fans who voted for T in the Park,” she said

Steve Jenner, founder and managing director of Virtual Festivals, curators of the UK Festival Awards, said, “The UK has the greatest festival scene in the world, and we thought it was about time someone stepped up to honour the people who make it happen.

“Judging by tonight’s turn out, it was wonderful to see that the music industry was in agreement. The fact that over 1,000,000 votes were cast during the 100% public vote further underlined how passionately music fans care about our festival scene, and proves the integrity that the UK Festival Awards have come to represent.

“It is an absolute privilege to bring these awards, the first of their kind, to the UK. We look forward to the UK Festival Awards being a regular fixture on the music calendar.”