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| Scottish Music Festivals, Wickerman |
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| Written by WickermanXXX |
| Saturday, 09 August 2008 20:51 |
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Found in the southwest corner of Scotland, Dumfries and Galloway, known as the "Scottish Riviera", is one of Scotland's hidden gems. While the Solway coast has many sheltered sandy coves and the lush green countryside has all the makings of a world class vacation destination it is frequently overlooked in preference to the usual tourist hotspots such as Edinburgh. However, especially in recent years, there has been a marked increase in tourism to the region and, as the area has many of the typical tourist attractions such as castles, stately homes and ruined abbeys, this growth is likely to continue long into the future. Each year it would seem that more and more people are choosing to visit music festivals. This year has seen a massive increase in the number of music events across the globe and in the United Kingdom there have been over four hundred this year. Obviously not all such events are as large as Glastonbury but even the smaller events manage to raise crowds of many thousands of people. Right at the peak of the tourist season (end of July) East Kirkcarswell, near Dundrennan comes alive with the sound of music emanating from the wonderful Wickerman Music Festival. Deep in the heart of Dumfries & Galloway the Wickerman Festival site is surrounded by the most incredible countryside and, usually, benefits by the gorgeous weather of the area. The Wickerman Music Festival is unusual form several reasons but most noticeable is the fact that it is a theme based music festival. Rather than being a festival of a particular type/genre of music its' theme is an old British movie Wickerman (1973) which, over the decades, has obtained a cult following. Although there has been a Hollywood remake, in 2006 starring Nicolas Cage, many much prefer the original which was rather unique, to say the least! Nearly all music festivals feature folk who dress up in all manner of costumes and regalia but at the Wickerman Music Festival there are far more than usual. The 1973 movie featured a number of animal costumes and many festival goers enjoy dressing up in a similar fashion. Much of the festival site has reminiscences of the movie and there is even an open air cinema but the most amazing film related event at the festival is the burning of a huge Wicker Man which must be seen to be believed. Wickerman is considered a family friendly music festival with many aspects geared towards family entertainment. This includes a full fairground, many circus events and acts including jugglers and stilt walkers as well as many small stalls and other areas of entertainment besides the music stages and tents. In the camping area there is a family and quiet area and, unusually for music festivals, the toilet facilities are usually rather clean. However if you want to ensure a clean toilet and you would rather not use one of the plastic portloo types then there is the "down and dirty" which, for a small extra fee, provides you with proper porcelain toilets which are continually monitored for cleanliness and toilet roll etc. There are also, if required, showers available in the down and dirty area. There are plenty of food stalls, clothing stalls and lots of other retailers including bars. There is one thing you will notice immediately about the Wickerman Music Festival and that is how clean and tidy it is. Most music festival seem to struggle under the weight of litter and other debris but at Wickerman there is an army of "wickerpickers" who gather up all litter for recycling. Dotted around the camping area are a number of cages for material which can be recycled and even those tents left behind are packed up and donated to charity. With amazing planning the site is very quickly cleaned up and it is soon difficult to imagine that only a few days before there had been thousands of people enjoying themselves. Strangely I have left the music aspects of the Wickerman Music Festival until the very last and this is for a simple reason that virtually all types make an appearance at this extremely diverse event. Punk, Ska, reggae, folk, dance, electronic, pop, rock, world music and many, many other types appear across a multitude of stages and tents making it, possibly, the most varied UK music event of the year. Obviously this means that many different types of people attend Wickerman but it also gives people the opportunity to experience types of music which they may not otherwise be exposed to. The really great thing about this music festival is that, even though there is an extremely diverse crowd, all folk are warm and friendly to such a degree that the atmosphere is one of the things that will remain with you long after the festival itself has finished. About the Author: Wickerman is a wonderful festival and the internet has many Wickerman 2007 photos and more Wickerman 2008 photos are appearing all of the time, so go and take a look Kindly provided by MoneyHunter.org You are welcome to use this article on your own website, if you include the link just before this text. |
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