If you have teenage children, T in the Park looms every year to test your resolve. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been told, by my children, their friends and their friends’ parents that the music festival is a rite of passage and they must be allowed to go.
So far, I have managed to resist. There are many milestones along the path from childhood to coming of age but taking a chance in the lawless environment of this Scottish event is one I think most teenagers could do without.
This year two young people, both 17, died before the first band had played a note, in separate suspected drug incidents. Another youth was taken to hospital claiming his drink had been spiked with drugs.
Police are also investigating the suspected rape of a teenage girl at a festival campsite. It is believed the alleged victim, 18, was attacked at the site at Strathallan Castle estate in Perthshire, where the event moved last year.
There have also been reports of fights, sexual assault and robbery, including the theft of an ATM machine.
Drug crimes
Police recorded a massive rise in the number of drug related crimes this year and the final crime tally will not be known for months.
Reporters mingling with the crowds recounted drunken brawls and easy access to Class A drugs.
In 2015, there were 266 drug related crimes, six serious sex assaults, 36 petty assaults and 11 crimes of threatening behaviour, according to Police Scotland.
In other years, thousands of pounds worth of drugs have been seized, with police admitting they only got about a 10th of what’s out there.
In 2010, T in the Park was at the centre of an attempted murder investigation after an attack on two men, a sexual assault and an unrelated death.
Regular festival goers have noted on internet forums that “the campsite is full of total idiots, and it’s been getting worse for the last five years”.
A police intelligence unit warned this year that the festival was a sitting duck for organised criminals who would try to infiltrate it.
Given its history, it is astonishing that T in the Park has survived for more than 20 years and incredible that so many youngsters, presumably with their parents’ consent, are prepared to run the gauntlet.
You would have thought that 2016’s would definitely be the last and even the organisers would belatedly concede that the deaths of a 17-year-old girl and boy were too high a price for commercial success.
But no. Geoff Ellis, the boss of DF Concerts, is determined the show will go on. Of the two deaths, he said: ‘It was a very sad start.’
However, the festival had to carry on and, hey, Friday was a “great day” and people were “having a great time, generally”. Pictures in this paper on Monday confirmed that people were doing just that.
Not everyone comes to harm in a potentially harmful situation but the catalogue of disasters that have beset T in the Park over the years suggests security is routinely lax, law enforcement is impossible and young people place themselves in unnecessary danger just by being there.
A camper from Edinburgh told a newspaper: “There has been a fair amount of fights on the campsite this weekend.
“And the security guys are simply nowhere to be seen and there seem to be so few of them.”
The debate over the festival’s future has raged for years and its licence is now renewed on a year-to-year basis following previous concerns.
It enjoys support from the government – SNP Culture Minister Fiona Hyslop approved a £150,000 grant that led to a cronyism row when it emerged that a then-SNP candidate was project manager for the festival’s promoters.
Money spinner
T in the Park is clearly a money spinner for the organisers, which raises entirely different questions about why it needs to seek and receive a substantial state subsidy.
But let’s hope that when Perth and Kinross councillors review next year’s application they put financial considerations aside.
Whatever the original intentions behind the festival – perhaps for people to relax, listen to music and let down their hair in benign surroundings – it no longer fulfils the remit.
With drug pushers preying on susceptible teens and young lives lost as a consequence, it has turned into a grim annual horror show.
There are plenty of other distractions for young people, musical ones included, most of which are not only cheaper but have a better safety record than T in the Park.
It might still be a great atmosphere for many visitors but even they would probably now agree that a party which results in such predictable tragedy is a party to avoid.