Putting a Region On The Map: Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival… Past, Present and Future
2:30pm - 3:30pm
Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival is firmly established as a key part of the regional and wider national cultural infrastructure- not only attracting a cross-reach of major international talent- but also acting as an important showcase platform for Highlands and Islands based artists looking to develop and broaden their audience. The festival has also offered a range of regional event professionals an arena to develop key skills and experience, not to mention the significant social, economic and community impacts it draws in. With most major gatherings either postponed, downscaled, packaged as digital offerings or in many cases cancelled completely across the pandemic, the need for collective cultural experiences feels more pressing than ever as Belladrum makes a welcome return to the festival calendar this summer. Founded in 2004, the event was acquired by Kilimanjaro Live in 2017 with a strong commitment to retaining the unique ‘Bella’ aesthetic that has ensured such a passionate and loyal audience. In this exclusive session, festival founder, Joe Gibbs, and Kilimanjaro Live CEO, Stuart Galbraith, sit down with XpoNorth to take a candid deep dive through the past, present and future of one of Scotland’s most loved festivals.
Chair
Alex Smith
Project Manager, XpoNorth
Along with the team at Ironworks Venue, Alex project manages the delivery of XpoNorth’s bespoke suite of specialist creative economy development programmes, custom designed to encourage the continued growth and innovation of the sector across one of the country’s most diverse regions. He also oversees the curation and delivery of XpoNorth’s well-established annual conference which continues to attract representatives from some of the largest and most influential networks in the global marketplace. XpoNorth is Highlands and Islands Enterprise’s (HIE) year-round support mechanism for creative, heritage and digital businesses based across the Highlands and Islands and is designed and delivered by ironworks Venue.
Speakers
Joe Gibbs
Founder, Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival
Following a misspent youth in the seventies going to rock festivals, Joe decided to start his own on a piece of ground that had once been the site of beautiful formal gardens at his home in Inverness-shire. Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival sprang to life in 2004 on a wing and a prayer, and next to no practical knowledge of running a musical event. The event grew to an attendance of 20,000 and in 2017 he sold it to Kilimanjaro Live Ltd.
In 2006, with two partners, he started RockNess, on the shores of Loch Ness. He has since been involved with partners in in Groove Loch Ness, Groove Cairngorm and The Gathering in Inverness.
Joe’s daytime job involves running his mixed estate in the Highlands – farming, forestry, tourism in the form of weddings, workshops and let cottages. Prior to that he had been a journalist, and a film location manager, mainly working in the Highlands on movies like ‘Mrs Brown’ and ‘The Governess’ and on television series like ‘Hamish MacBeth.’
Stuart Galbraith
CEO, Kilimanjaro Group
Stuart Galbraith is the CEO of Kilimanjaro Group. Formed in 2008, Kilimanjaro Group is a subsidiary of DEAG and comprises Kilimanjaro Live, Flying Music Group, Gigantic Tickets, MyTicket, Let’s Rock Festivals, UK Live, Fane Productions, Singular Artists, Kilimanjaro Theatricals, Form, Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival (Scotland) and Christmas Lights. Each year the overall group of companies produces and promotes over 2000 music concerts, musical theatre, comedy, spoken word, festivals, family events and social media events. This highly varied roster of shows, artistes and authors includes Ed Sheeran, Andrea Bocelli, Stereophonics, Kew the Music, The Illusionists, Thriller Live, Margaret Atwood and Sir Ralph Fiennes as well as theatrical productions running on Broadway such as The Kite Runner and Hadestown and Tom Jones’ musical What’s New Pussycat in the UK. Kilimanjaro Group sells over 2.5 million tickets per annum across the group.
