with a local connection The Proclaimers bring sunshine to the Fife

The Big Tent festival in Fife this weekend featured two of the biggest names to come out of the region and has been hailed as another hugely successful event.

The Proclaimers, who famously spent much of their childhood in Auchtermuchty, which is just two miles away from the festival site, headlined on the Saturday night while Ian Rankin, the author of the popular Rebus series of books, hosted a workshop on the Sunday.

Organised by a small charity based at the Falkland Estate in the heart of Fife, sustainability is key to this festival, which this year attracted around 10,000 visitors over the weekend. Established in 2006, Big Tent is first and foremost an environmental festival with a packed aspirational and inspirational musical and cultural programme. So throughout the weekend there was a range of talks, debates and films raising awareness of issues such as sustainable transport, biodiversity, and farming, alongside the music.

The festival organisers also encouraged sustainable travel to the event, providing shuttle buses and crafting bike racks out of wood for the many cyclists they hoped would use pedal power to get to the site. One of the most high profile exponents of this philosophy was Mark Beaumont, the record-breaking long-distance cyclist, adventurer, broadcaster, documentary maker and author, who kayaked and cycled his way to the festival with his friends The Whisky Riverboat Band (more of which in Sunday's review).

By lunchtime on Saturday, the campervan site was full and the two campsites close to capacity with sales of weekend camping tickets up on the previous event in 2010. The sun was shining which also boosted day ticket sales on the day.

Easing us into the music was our first act of the day, Jeana Leslie and Siobhan Miller, two talented and award-winning young singers and musicians on the Scottish music scene whose voices blend together beautifully and whose love of music as a craft and medium for telling stories was apparent throughout their set.

The Paul McKenna Band is another award-winning outfit and one that has been described by no less than the New York Times as the "best folk band to have come out of Scotland in the last twenty years." They play a mixture of reels and songs, both traditional and contemporary folk, as well as some self-penned tunes. This heartfelt performance saw them play everything from Dreams of Darian to Ewan MacColl's Terror Time, finishing with an Irish reel that the crowd loved.

Das Contras was up next, and apart from the headliners on Saturday, was the band who claimed the most local connection that day, with a guitarist "representing" the village of Falkland itself. A mash up of folk, reggae, latin and rock music gave them a sort of hi-energy 80s vibe that went down well in a sunny field in Fife full of happy revellers. They were followed by Breabach with their powerhouse sound of double bagpipes, tempered with Megan Henderson's amazing voice and fiddle playing.


Treacherous Orchestra is an 11 piece band featuring musicians from (amongst others) Shooglenifty, the Peatbog Fairies and Salsa Celtica, and usually two of 'em - there are two pipers, two fiddles and two percussionists - and everyone seems to play at least two instruments: whistles and pipes; double bass and bass guitar. The band has both a cohesive look and a cohesive sound which is essentially loud and lively and very popular with the enthusiastic crowd.

And so to Saturday's headline act, a sort of homecoming for The Proclaimers. The twins, Charlie and Craig Reid, who have of course headlined Edinburgh's Hogmanay and the Wickerman Festival, as well as Heb Celt just a couple of weeks ago, and who have also performed at T in the Park just along the road from Falkland, were delighted to be playing their first outdoor event in Fife itself. One of Scotland's most prolific acts, the band has around thirty years' worth of crowd-pleasing material to choose from and a fanbase ranging in age from kids under ten (thanks in no doubt to the inclusion of I'm on my way in Shrek), many of whom had songs dedicated to them, to old punks and activists and grandparents.

From the outset, the set included lots of the sing-a-long hits: I hate my love for you, I'm on my way, There's a touch, What makes you cry, I met you, Let's get married, Wait, 500 miles, Letter from America and of course the ever-beautiful and always emotional Sunshine on Leith. Generations of fans came together in simple celebration of the spirit of one of Fife's finest exports and the shared happiness and understanding was a privilege to be part of. The encore was Joyful Kilmarnock Blues, which was joyful indeed with a whole hillside of people jumping and bouncing and dancing and singing and reeling to the story of a Hibernian away game. It was followed by the equally joyful Life with You, a euphoric, articulate and passionate ode to love in its simplest form, and it was a very happy audience that headed back to their tents still singing away.

Latest Updates