Festival parking charge in bid to ease congestion

Traffic queued outside the Belladrum festival site near Beauly

The Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival is to introduce a car parking charge in an effort to ease traffic congestion at next year's 20th anniversary event.

Some festival-goers and acts queued for hours to get into the festival site on the opening day this year.

The hold-ups also affected local residents trying to get to or from their homes around the venue near Beauly.

The new parking passes are to cost £12 per vehicle and organisers said profits from the sale would be used to benefit local communities.

'Car sharing'

A record 25,000 tickets were sold for last month's three-day festival.

But some people told of queuing in traffic for five hours or more to reach the site on the first day.

Bella's organisers apologised for the situation.

In an announcement on Tuesday, they said: "Those caught up in the traffic on the Thursday this year will hopefully be pleased to hear that we are re-introducing car park passes, which must be booked in advance."

Organisers said people would be able to park near to where they were camping and issued with designated car stickers.

They said: "This will encourage more car sharing, manage the car park capacities and speed up entry to the festival."

Acts this year included Sigrid, Bastille and Travis.