Broughty Ferry is to host its own live music festival, run along the lines of the Dundee Blues Bonanza, after the area’s pubs were denied the chance to participate in the city’s annual blues festival.
The Ferry pubs have decided to plough their own furrow after repeated attempts to be included in the hugely successful Bonanza over the past four years were thwarted.
While stressing it is not being done to rival the Dundee event, organisers admit the plan is for the Broughty live music festival to take place over the same weekend as the Blues Bonanza.
It’s believed the city centre venues were against extending the street-level festival to the Ferry as they felt it would dilute their audiences and reduce revenue.
The man behind the Broughty Ferry plan, John Black of the Fort Hotel, says the pubs have now agreed to organise their own festival, likely to run in conjunction with Broughty Ferry Gala Week.
John said: ”Two years ago we had about nine pubs all ready to participate in the Blues Bonanza but the organisers refused it.
“We were told that people said there would be problems with the bands and fans getting to gigs in the Ferry. But we’re only down the road, and it’s a great opportunity for people to see some live music on their own doorstep.
”They were worried people wouldn’t travel into town if we had bands playing down here but there are a lot of people here who maybe wouldn’t go into Dundee for the Blues Bonanza but who would come out to see the music in the Ferry.
”We thought about doing it last year but decided if we were going to do it then it had to be done properly, with lots of preparation.
”We’ve been talking to a drinks company about sponsorship and there are nine or 10 pubs very keen to be involved already. We’re having a meeting on Wednesday to discuss it and we’ll have an organising committee to take it forward.
”I would stress it’s not a blues festival it’s a live music festival, with all kinds of music from traditional acoustic folk musicians to full-on indie rock bands, solo singer-songwriters and pop acts.”
John added: ”We didn’t get into the Blues Bonanza, so we’re moving on and doing our own thing. I started the Fort Hotel’s Big Weekend in 2008 because we couldn’t get into the Blues Bonanza and that’s been a huge success. That will continue as it is. It happens in May and it works perfectly with the Fisherman’s beer festival.
”We see the live music festival as a natural extension to that. It’s time Broughty Ferry had a live music festival and it fits in perfectly with the gala week too.
”We believe people will travel between Dundee and the Ferry to see bands at both events and that can only be a good thing for businesses and taxi firms. It’s something we think can only boost tourism to Broughty Ferry and to Dundee as a whole.”