Wickerman Festival
| The Wickerman Festival | |
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| Genre | Rock, Ska, Alternative rock, Northern Soul, Dance, Indie, World music, Punk, Reggae, Folk music. |
| Dates | Third weekend of July |
| Location(s) | Dundrennan, Scotland |
| Years active | 2001 - 2015 |
The Wickerman Festival was an annual music festival held near to Dundrennan in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Dubbed "Scotland's Alternative Music festival", the festival celebrated its 10th Birthday in 2011 on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 July.
It began in 2001 when the festivals artistic director Sid Ambrose, whilst working with the Stewartry Music Initiative, hit upon the idea of a local counter-culture based family-friendly festival due to the surrounding area being inextricably linked with various locations used within the classic British horror film The Wicker Man (1973) starring Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward. He took the idea to local farmer Jamie Gilroy, and by doing this, they ensured that the festival would eventually settle within a natural amphitheatre of 120 acres (0.49 km2) of prime Galloway grazing land at East Kirkcarswell Farm, Dundrennan.
Musically as well as creatively, the festival has been likened to a smaller version of Glastonbury with a widely eclectic mix of music to suit everyone. It has several stages and these include a main stage (Summerisle), the Axis Sound System reggae sound systemtent, the Acoustic Village, a stage for punk/ska/northern soul called The Scooter Tent, The Solus Tent for new Scottish bands, several dance tents, as well as a children's area, workshops, beer tent, crafts, a cinema, and much more.
The festival climaxes on Saturday at midnight with the burning of a giant 30 ft (9.1 m) Wickerman, built by local craftsmen Trevor Leat and Alex Rigg.
Its motto is: "The Wickerman Festival - it's better than it needs to be!"
The 2013 festival was held on 26 and 27 July, and featured artists such as Primal Scream, Chic, Amy MacDonald and Dexys on the main Summerisle stage. Dance DJs included Matt Hinde, James Ryan and Luke Stanger. The Scooter Tent featured Stiff Little Fingers and The Rezillos.
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