Following rave reviews of last weekend’s fifth Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, the festival has announced its return on 7th & 8th August 2009.
Tickets will go on sale on October 1st 2008 and the price for advance purchases will be held at the 2008 rate of £80 per weekend ticket and £50 per Saturday ticket (plus postage and booking fees) with children 12 & under coming free.
In a year when a significant number of other festivals around the UK have gone to the wall, Bella’s organisers were delighted to find that support for the event remained solid in the Highlands and elsewhere in Scotland.
“It is really gratifying to find that the Highland community has taken this event so to heart and that wider Scotland has too. 2008 had the best atmosphere yet, thanks to the all ages attendance, hot weather and a fantastic bill,” said festival co-director Joe Gibbs.
“Our audience feedback has been over-the-moon. We look forward to providing them with more exciting entertainment in 2009.”
This year’s festival featured chart favourites Scouting For Girls and heritage rockers The Waterboys as headliners plus Idlewild, The Lemonheads, Edwyn Collins and Justin Currie

Chart favourites One Night Only from Helmsley whose debut album 'Started A Fire' has gone gold and made the top 10 make an exciting addition to the Friday line-up at Belladrum, and Glasgow indie band Sons & Daughters, who formed out of an Arab Strap tour, are now added to the Saturday bill.

Unfortunately three acts have been forced to pull out of this year's festival. Elle S'Appelle and The Long Blondes have each had to cancel due to the serious illness of an artist and Cage The Elephant due to an injury. All three have cancelled all gigs for the forseeable future (check websites for more information). In a line-up which features around 100 music and performance artists, cancellations are an inevitable fact of life. However, in booking One Night Only and Sons & Daughters, we have filled the gaps with high quality replacements. The Holloways have also cancelled, being unable to travel as a result but since they are playing a surfing festival in Newquay on the Friday and there is a plane that would get them to Inverness from Exeter on the Saturday in time for their set, Highland fans can draw their own conclusions.

Cage The Elephant have issued the following statement:
“Following a recent accident back home in Kentucky Matt Schultz from Cage The Elephant has badly exacerbated a knee injury he originally sustained on the band's recent UK tour. After seeing a specialist he has been ordered to completely rest his knee to let it recover.
The band have therefore been forced to cancel a number of festival appearances and will now return to the UK in time for their appearances at the Reading and Leeds Festival in August and at Bestival in September . A new single "In One Ear" will be released on 22nd September.”