The Big Tent Festival saw a record number of people passing through its gates, and the Falkland showcase saw Grammy Award winner Rosanne Cash topping its music line-up.
Transitional steward Neil Anderson, of organiser Falkland Centre for Stewardship, said the consensus was that the festival on a new location in Falkland Estate had surpassed those of previous years.
Big Tent has grown from its roots in 2006 as a response to the G8 Summit in Gleneagles the year before.
Last year, 10,000 people attended and Mr Anderson said ticket sales this year were well up.
He said, “It has been an amazing weekend. The weather has shone on us and people have come in their droves from all over Scotland.
“I’m told it has been the best Big Tent ever. It’s certainly the largest and the new site is spectacular.”
Visitors, he said, thought Fife was fabulous, and he added, “As a flagship event for Fife’s year of culture, hopefully we have done Fife proud.”
While the new location, Home Park, had proved very popular, Mr Anderson said there were some site management issues to be addressed for next year.
A huge draw to the green festival was Sunday’s main stage performance by Cash, the daughter of the late country star Johnny Cash.’Transcendent experience’Cash said she was thrilled and overwhelmed to be back in Falkland in the area to which her father had traced the Cash family ancestry and described performing as a “transcendent experience.”
Like her father, who was proud of the family connection with Fife, she has visited the village several times over the years.
She told The Courier that one of her ancestors was a sailor from nearby Strathmiglo indeed the Cash name lives on in the village where one street is called Cash Feus.
The mariner went to Massachusetts in the mid 17th century after ferrying many immigrants across the Atlantic.
Cash said, “I have been trying to get to this festival for years. My friend Ninian (Falkland Palace hereditary keeper Ninian Stuart) and I have finally worked it out.
“Falkland always feels like home. There’s something particularly resonant about the area for me. It feels natural to be here.”
On her Twitter page, she told fans, “Had transcendent experience tonight; I don’t use the word lightly. Played Falkland, Scotland, ancestral home of the Cashes; love it deeply.
“Closed the show with ‘The Good Intent’, a song I wrote @ the deep past, Scotland, dad in the near past, Arkansas, and the future.
“As I ended the song I welled with tears, many in the audience also. It was a moment out of time, streets & land w/ Cash name all around me.”
Also on the musical line-up was Fife singer-songwriter King Creosote, Aberfeldy, FOUND, Sarah Banjo and Brazil! Brazil!
Speakers included Gambian Adelaide Sosseh, who co-chairs the Global Call For Action Against Poverty.
The event saw a series of debates and workshops on environmental issues and a variety of entertainment, including children’s activities, poetry recitals, a solar cinema and story-telling.
Rosanne Cash photo courtesy of Michael Alexander.