Basking in sunshine and a warm glow of nostalgia, music fans flocked to Perthshire at the weekend for the Rewind Festival.
Against the backdrop of Scone Palace the kings and queens of ’80s pop performed for nearly 12,000 people on Saturday and over 8000 on Sunday.
The revival festival, which boasted a “who’s who” of acts from that era, started in Henley-on-Thames two years ago and proved such a draw that the organisers added the Scottish date this year. On the back of the weekend’s success, hopes are high that it could return north of the border next year.
“We would be absolutely delighted if Rewind came back next year,” said Scone Palace administrator Elspeth Bruce. “There has been a very relaxed atmosphere with people entering into the spirit of the ’80s…
“As far as we are concerned everything went smoothly and there are a lot of happy people around and the weather has been fantastic. It has been absolutely perfect.
“Traffic doesn’t seem to have been a problem. The car park cleared in record time. I also think there was a good uptake of the shuttle buses, which helped.”
The officer in charge of policing, Superintendent Jim Leslie, was full of praise for the crowds.
“It has been a great event, the audience have had a really positive attitude,” he said. “The weather was great on Saturday, which helped. There have been practically no policing problems from the audience at all, for an event of this size scale it has been negligible.
“We have been delighted with the whole approach of the audience. It is the first year of this event and we have been really pleased with how it has gone.”
Only a couple of arrests were made over the weekend for an alleged minor disorder offence and dishonesty. There were only minor issues with traffic, said Superintendent Leslie, mainly at the end of the evenings when there was an exodus.
The first aid tent reported no major problems. The vast majority of cases were minor ailments, particularly sunburn on the Saturday.
Dressed up for the occasion, the crowds had come from far and wide, with one person even travelling from Dubai. Rod Dean from Manchester made the trip north with a group of friends and along with around 2600 others was camping on site.
“I thought about going to Henley but I’m glad I picked Scotland,” said Rod (41). “It has been a brilliant festival, everyone has been really enjoying themselves. The highlights for me were Billy Ocean and Kid Creole and the Coconuts.”
While the bands were not playing the site provided plenty of other diversions for festival-goers with bars, carnival rides and a karaoke tent. At the conclusion of each evening there was a fireworks display.
“It has been a magical event, really good fun,” said Sophie Walker (37) from Falkirk. “The campsite looks out over the river. It is really special and everybody has been so friendly. If it comes back next year I will definitely be returning.”