Angry backlash as traffic delays mark start of Belladrum festival in Highlands
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Traffic chaos at the start of the Belladrum Festival near Beauly has prompted an angry backlash from residents and festival-goers.
Thousands of motorists queued for hours to get to the festival site yesterday while residents in local communities including Beauly and Kiltarlity found themselves caught up in the gridlock across the area.
As organisers reported best-ever sales of 25,000 tickets for the three-day festival, traffic on the A862 and the A833 came to a standstill yesterday with reports of people delayed for five hours.
- Belladrum organisers say they are incredibly disappointed
- High-energy music and sunshine helps ease festival traffic angst
Many people have taken to social media to voice their frustration while one local resident has called for Highland Council to hold an inquiry into what happened yesterday.
A local councillor said she is in contact with the council's roads teams and the festival organisers to find out more about what happened.
One of those who watched the traffic chaos unfold at his home above Beauly was Michael Smith who called for Highland Council to look into what caused the disruption and said a proper traffic plan needed to be drawn up before a licence was granted for future festivals.
He worried about what would have happened had emergency vehicles needed to get in and out of the festival site.
"The whole area was badly affected," he said.
"This really has to be thought about.
"Everyone has to come in on one road not all the roads. Yesterday, the roads from Inverness, Muir of Ord and Abriachan were all blocked."
Another woman said she had been going to Belladrum since its second year.
"Didn't manage to get there for any of the music tonight thanks to the traffic hold-ups," she said.
In a post on social media, Lianne Coutts queried whether there were sufficient numbers of marshals moving the cars into parking spaces quickly enough.
"More tickets means more parking and this space we ended up in wasn’t planned or staffed enough," she said.
Margaret Mackenzie posted: "They need to open up another access route to the site. Maybe allocate slots for campervan / caravans to arrive?"
Simon Cook said: "What about the people that live nearby that took five hours to get home?"
Aird and Loch Ness councillor Emma Knox said she was aware of the long queues most of the day yesterday with some people reporting it took over five hours to get home because of the Belladrum traffic.
"Roads around Inchmore, Kiltarlity and Beauly were gridlocked," she said.
"Preliminary enquiries suggest the traffic management systems in place were the same as last year when they worked relatively well.
"It is not yet clear why the congestion was so much worse than last year when the same measures were in place.
"Some of the commentary on social media suggests there were more cars trying to get into the festival and it was taking longer to get in and parked, but it wouldn't be appropriate to speculate at this early stage.
"I am in contact with the roads teams at the council and the festival organisers to find out more and the situation is being monitored to minimise further delays."
