Tartan Heart Festival

The Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival is an annual music and arts festival, held on the Belladrum Estate in Kiltarlity, Scotland. The festival was founded in 2004. In 2022 it attracted 20,000 attendees.

Background information
The festival is well known for its wide-ranging musical scope, as well as its family friendly atmosphere, with a large dedicated family camp-site, as well as free entry for children under the age of 12. Previous acts that have played at the festival include Madness, Tom Jones, Two Door Cinema Club, Kaiser Chiefs, Ed Sheeran, Ben Howard, James, Manic Street Preachers, Deacon Blue, Texas Embrace, The Automatic, The Proclaimers, The Wombats, Travis, and many more.

Stages include, The Garden Stage (Main Stage set in Italian Gardens), The Hot House (Rock Indie, Alternative, Singer-songwriter), The Grassroots (folk, roots, acoustic), Venus Flytrap (comedy, wrestling, cabaret), The Seedlings (emerging and buzz new acts), Mother's Ruin (Dance and Electronic), The Verb Garden (talks, debates, films), The Burke and Hare (cabaret, performance, dj's), The Bella Bar stage, Free Range Folk Stage (singer-songwriters, traditional, acoustic based bands), Jazz Bar (new for 2016) and an array of busking stages.

Other areas of the festival include a dedicated children's area, with puppet workshops, arts and crafts, circus skills, dance and music classes and much more. The Walled Garden hosts a variety of alternative therapies, the Burke & Hare and Free Rage Folk stages, and re-enactment groups.

Over the years the festival has also hosted Ice-rinks, roller discos, Danny Maccaskills Drop & Roll, and a zip line.

The festival has a tradition of selecting a theme and organisers encourage revellers to don fancy dress on the Saturday. Previous themes have been:

2023 - Cartoons

2022 - Myths and Legends

2021 - [cancelled due to covid]

2020 - [cancelled due to covid]

2019 - Science Fiction

2018 - Bollywood

2017 - Summer of Love

2016 - Superstition

2015 - Superheroes

2014 - Wild Life

2013 - Carnival

2012 - Royalty

2011 - Space

2010 - Wonderland

Fringe
In previous years as well as the festival itself there was also a Festival fringe which centered around the 2 weeks surrounding the festival. This finished in the early hours of Hootananny's on the Thursday prior to the festival. The fringe's gigs had no entry-fee in some bars/pubs however others may charge, the fringe showcased a variety of Acts and Music Genres. The Fringe set the mood in the run up to Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival on 8 and 9 August 2008, offering a musical trail around the Highlands for the intrepid music lover.

2004
The festival began in 2004 with 2,000 people attending for one day in Belladrum's Italian Gardens, the terraced arena that now acts as the Garden Stage. Since then, the capacity has grown 18,500 people over two and a half days (3 - 5 August 2017), with an additional headliner being added to the ceilidh warm up on the Thursday night in 2015.

2005
In 2005 the festival was on Friday 12 and Saturday 13 August. This year it had five stages, ranging in size from the Grassroots Tent, which has a capacity of approximately 250 and is dedicated to small acoustic and folk acts, through to the Garden Stage, which is a natural amphitheatre that can hold several thousand people

In 2005, new features include the Seedlings Stage for new or unsigned artists and the Venus Flytrap Palais, a stage totally dedicated to the wonderful and sometimes, frankly, weird in music, theatre, cabaret and performance art.

2008
2008 saw the Tartan Heart Festival win the award for the best Grass Roots Festival (2008)

2009
The 2009 festival took place on 7 and 8 August, and the headline acts were the Editors and Ocean Colour Scene

2010

 * Feeder
 * Amy Macdonald
 * The Wailers
 * Badly Drawn Boy
 * The Divine Comedy
 * The Levellers
 * King Creosote
 * Twin Atlantic
 * Candy Staton
 * Dick Gaughan
 * The Vatersay Boys

2011

 * Texas
 * Deacon Blue
 * Ed Sheeran
 * Ben Howard
 * King Charles
 * Frank Turner
 * Skerryvore
 * Teddy Thompson
 * Vintage Trouble
 * Roddy Hart & The Lonesome Fire
 * The David Latto Band (Potting Shed Stage)

2013
Garden Stage (Main Stage) saw James headline along with Twin Atlantic, Pigeon Detectives, Alabama 3, Seasick Steve and many more.

2014

 * Tom Jones
 * Reef
 * Frightened Rabbit
 * Billy Bragg
 * Glenn Tilbrook
 * The Temperance Movement
 * Grandmaster Flash
 * Adrian Edmondson & The Bad Shepherds
 * The Vatersay Boys

2017

 * The Pretenders
 * Franz Ferdinand
 * Sister Sledge
 * K T Tunstall
 * First Aid Kit
 * Colonel Mustard & The Dijon 5

2018

 * Paloma Faith
 * The Fun Lovin' Criminals
 * The Charlatans
 * Amy Macdonald
 * Professor Green
 * Ward Thomas
 * Colonel Mustard & The Dijon 5
 * Gerry Cinamon
 * Primal Scream

2022
The Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival returned to Scotland on 28 July 2022 with the festival featuring performances from The Magic Numbers, Tide Lines, Daytime TV, Emeli Sandé, Admiral Fallow, Nile Rodgers & Chic, Dreadzone, The Fratellis, Siobhan Miller, Vistas, Peat & Diesel (replacing Sam Ryder at short notice), Shed Seven, Passenger and a DJ set from Gok Wan. Highlights from the festival were broadcast on BBC Scotland and BBC Alba, with Fiona MacKenzie and Niall Iain MacDonald presenting. Full sets from a number of acts were also available on the BBC iPlayer.