Gardeners of the Galaxy: A brief history of Belladrum
- Published
The final countdown has started to this summer's Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival on the Belladrum Estate near Beauly. Each year the event has a theme. Last year it was wildlife and this year it is comic book superheroes.
In the spirit of the superhero theme, the BBC Scotland news website gives this comic strip-style brief history of Bella - as told by its founder Joe Gibbs.
"The idea for Bella came out of the clouds of steam while daydreaming in a bathtub, together with memories of a misspent youth at music festivals and a need to revive the Italian Gardens of the Belladrum Estate," says Gibbs.
"It had reached a point where the gardens had either to be restored for a purpose, or be left to slide down the route of romantic decay."
"A plan soon formed to give the Highlands something it had not seen before."
"With help from a small team of 'superheroes' work started on making Bella's debut."
"Those who came forward to help were, like me, music festival fans."
"And were lovers of music of all kinds."
"The first Bella was held in 2004."
"In the years that followed we have had various challenges to the staging of the festival..."
"One year a flood hit the site."
"The downpour affected the campsite."
"We had to evacuate some of the tents and get people to somewhere dry."
"I think we rose to that challenge. However, others were not far away."
"We also had to find the strength to see us - and our loyal fans - through the economic downturn and recession."
"To fight against that challenge, we froze our ticket prices for two years and introduced part payment schemes to try and help people to continue coming to Bella."
"Things that have helped us weather those storms include the festival's successes in having cross-the-board appeal in terms of ages - from grannies to babes in arms."
"What also helps is that Bella has a very distinctive personality - a bit random and wacky combined with the famed warmth of Highland hospitality."
"I like to think Bella has grown organically as part of the community it springs from and which it serves."
Belladrum will take place from 6-8 August.