T in the Park - Did you know?

T in the Park has a number of key facts and figures that might just surprise you - check out some of the info and find out what's been going on through the years at T in the Park.

In the Beginning . . .

• 1994 saw T in the Park’s inaugural event at Strathclyde Country Park
• 17,000 people attended the first festival, with just 2000 choosing to camp
• In 1997 T moved to its now spiritual home at the Old Balado Airfield, near Kinross

Ch - Ch - Ch - Ch - Changes . . .

• Last year 80,000 music fans came to party with over 60,000 creating a temporary T town in the campsite, as the site quite literally became a music village, complete with its own traffic lights!
• 45% of T in the Parkers purchased tickets outwith Scotland in 2007, making it a truly international affair
• In 2007, 11 stages featured an amazing mix of over 180 artists
• As if this wasn’t enough, T in the Park also provides the Balado crowd with a fun fair, global food village, and many more attractions each year
• Healthy T was introduced in 2007 to disprove the notion that festival food is unhealthy and unappetising. Celebrity chefs, The Hairy Bikers and Martin Wishart demonstrated that tasty meals can be made in minutes. Delicious offerings included a juice bar, porridge, stovies, oysters and mussels
• T in the Park is the only UK festival to have two stages dedicated to supporting homegrown talent in the T Break Stage and Ceilidh Tent
• The Dance Tent was introduced in 1995 and became the Slam Tent in 1997, and celebrated its 10th year in 2006 by seeing a staggering 12,000 pairs of arms in the air each day. It’s still going strong . . .
• The X Tent, introduced to celebrate T’s 10th birthday became the Futures Stage in 2005. In 2007 Brian Wilson gave T in the Park ‘Good Vibrations’ as he performed the feel good hits of the summer on the stage named after the Beach Boys seminal 1966 album. The Pet Sounds Arena was introduced in 2006 and guarantees to boast an eclectic mix of artists.

Behind the Scenes . . .

• The fans may have only arrived on Friday, but it took a team of hundreds 39 days to construct and dismantle the site in 2007
• In order to create the mini town that T becomes for the weekend, a staggering 30,000 metres of fencing is used – and that doesn’t count the 8,500 metres of perimeter fence employed to keep T in the Parkers safe and sound.
• Not only has T in the Park smashed its own record in ticket sales year on year, but it has also sported the country’s longest urinal back in 2004, which stretched the length of two football pitches.
• T in the Park strives to make all aspects of festival goers experience as pleasurable as possible – and this extends to the toilets. Last year 1192 portaloos were delivered to site, a figure at least 10% higher than the industry standard. Across site toilets are serviced at least three times a day by a team of 120 attendants to keep them as sweet smelling as possible and to keep those toilet paper levels topped up!
• Each year some 4000 people work behind the scenes to bring T in the Park together, some working year round.

The Artists and Audience’s Favourite Festival . . .

• A favourite with artists, T in the Park received a number of kind words on stage over the years as New Order stated that in 2005
  ‘this is a great festival. This is the best audience we’ve played to’
  with Travis summing up the zeitgeist of the weekend in saying
  ‘this year we’ve proven that this is the greatest British festival’.
  2006 however witnessed the ultimate honour as Pete Townsend proclaimed
  ‘This has been the best festival experience ever. You guys have been better than Woodstock
  or The Isle of Wight Festival’.
• T in the Park has seen many fantastic impromptu performances and collaborations over the years, including the late great Joe Strummer’s campsite busking in 1996 a feat repeated by Badly Drawn Boy in 2002, Noel Gallagher joining the legendary Paul Weller on stage in 2001 to duet on some Jam classics whilst in 2005 Brandon Flowers of The Killers joined his heroes New Order when he dueted on the classic track, Crystal
• Many bands have used their performances to thank T’s organisers for looking after them over the years. Radiohead thanked T back in 1996 for being the first people to serve them hot food when they’d played King Tut’s as a support band year’s back, and the Manic Street Preachers using their 1999 Main Stage performance to do the same
• The Balado crowd have been treated to some major firsts over the years, including first ever UK festival appearances from The Strokes and The Polyphonic Spree, a King Tut’s Tent line-up over the years that has included Oasis, Blur, The Manics and Pulp back in 1994 and Coldplay back in 2000. Plus there was a set from a band called Glass Onion on what was then the Caledonia Stage (now the T Break Stage) back at the first ever T in the Park. They changed their name to Travis and the rest is history

Green T . . .

• T in the Park became the world's largest CarbonNeutral festival in 2006 and continues to work to reduce and offset its carbon emissions in addition to a wide range of environmentally responsible event initiatives.
• Did you know that the pint of Tennent’s Lager you enjoy on site is the freshest available? Not on is it brewed just 36 hours before T in the Park specifically for the weekend, it travels a mere 44 miles from brewery to Balado.
• The cup recycling initiative introduced in 2006 and developed in 2007 saw T in the Parkers return over 75% of cups to designated recycling points.