TRNSMT festival fans face ban on single-use vapes

Scotland's biggest music festival will search fans for single-use vapes as part of a push to improve sustainability.

TRNSMT will return to Glasgow Green this weekend, with Liam Gallagher, Gerry Cinnamon and Calvin Harris all set to headline.

The vape ban was in place last year, but organisers have stepped up efforts to stop the disposable pens from littering the site.

Festival director Geoff Ellis said he hoped those who attend the three-day event "only leave footprints" when the site is packed up.

As well as single-use vapes, concertgoers will be banned from taking in flags, glass and selfie sticks.

Mr Ellis said: "It’s purely from a sustainability point of view in the same way that we’ve banned plastic on site as well.

"We try to do what we can in terms of sustainability and we try to encourage the audience to do the same."

CCTV and police detection dogs will be present at the entrance to the site and across the park.

Asked if he thought the single-use vape ban would be easy to enforce, he said: "Yes. I think it’s about communication.

"If you get the message out there to people, people listen. If you tell them not to bring stuff, they tend not to bring them.

"We’ve got a fairly rigorous searching system at the gate with the stewards anyway.”

Last year the Glastonbury Festival added single-use vapes to its list of things not to bring to the event.

In February, the Scottish government confirmed plans to ban the electronic devices by next April due to health and environmental concerns.

Headliner concerns

The festival has previously been criticised for the gender split on the line-up.

This year it is roughly even, but only seven out of the 24 acts on the main stage feature women.

TRNSMT has been running since 2017 but only one women has been involved in headlining the festival - Pulp keyboardist Candida Doyle in 2023.

Last year's main acts also included Sam Fender and The 1975.

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Mr Ellis said: "All three headline acts are male acts, there’s no denying that.

"But I think all festivals do what they can to improve gender balance and at TRNSMT this year, we’ve actually over 50% of acts that identify as female.

"It’s not the three headliners so there’s still work to be done, and work to be done with developing artists."

He said that a lot of the acts are from Scotland because "developing homegrown, grassroots talent has always been a focus".

Mr Ellis added: "Gerry Cinnamon played the very first TRNSMT on the King Tut’s stage and now he’s headlining this year.

"We’ve got people like Dylan John Thomas and The Snuts coming through on a very similar path as well.

"It’s very important to help develop new artists, like on the River stage with people like Rianne Downey.

"Then she played the main stage with Paul Heaton last year - I think Rianne Downey and Paul Heaton were among the standouts of Glastonbury this year as well."

The 1975 were among the headliners who performed in Glasgow Green last year

In terms of weather for the weekend, sunny intervals are expected when TRNSMT kicks off on Friday and a couple of light showers and a gentle breeze are expected over the weekend.

Mr Ellis said: "I think the weather will be Scottish but as far as rain goes, Scotland’s been doing better than the rest of the UK recently.

"The forecast is looking decent for the weekend so fingers crossed.

"When I was walking around the site yesterday it felt like summer has finally reached Scotland so hopefully it stays for a few weeks yet."

The festival director said there was "no greater buzz" than seeing the audience arrive and explore the site.

"A lot of them are at the main stage and enjoying the big artists, as you’d expect," he said.

"But they're also discovering the little things on site like the Big Feed food area, the cocktail bars, the sponsor activations, the chill-out area.

"You see that energy and passion in the audience that makes it an outdoor show in Glasgow like nowhere else."