We’re into the final countdown to BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Dundee.
The stage is set for thousands of fans – and some of the biggest names in music – to descend on Camperdown Park this weekend for only the second time in the event’s history.
I’ll be one of them and I couldn’t be more excited about seeing Dundee host the festival once more.
It has been quite the journey since the Big Weekend’s first outing here in 2006.
There were hopes that Dundee might host the event in 2017, since previous UK City of Culture holders had done so as part of their year of events. But the failure of Dundee’s bid to take the title in 2013 put paid to that ambition.
Dundee was supposed to hold the festival again in 2020. But, with the build-up on and excitement rising, the Covid pandemic led to its cancellation.
So it’s great to know that it’s finally happening – and great to see a line-up that is certain to make up for past disappointments.
Lewis Capaldi, The 1975, Wet Leg, The Jonas Brothers, Niall Horan, Jess Glynne and many more are set to shine in Dundee.
I’ll be heading there with my brother on the Saturday, and I am so looking forward to the experience.
Dundee deserves a music festival after all this time
This will be my third music festival in the city, after Carnival 56 in August 2015 and then the V&A Dundee 3D Festival in September 2018.
But this one feels extra-special since we’ll be following in our mum and dad’s footsteps.
They went to Big Weekend in 2006, the last time it came to Dundee.
They won tickets for the Sunday in that year’s online ballot, when the line-up featured rising stars, The View, who had just recently broken through on the music scene.
My dad said the build-up that year was huge because Dundee hadn’t seen anything like it before.
They both remember parking at the Dryburgh Industrial Estate, meeting up with old work colleagues and sitting on the grass in the sunshine in front of the Main Stage, listening to Pink, Keane and The Sugababes.
You can still read the reviews on the old Big Weekend website from 2006.
Comments include: “There isn’t a word in the world which can describe how fantastic the day was” and “Radio 1, you’ve definitely won a lot more fans in Dundee”.
I hope that Dundee’s second time hosting the festival goes just as well. And I can’t wait to see what memories people come away with this time round.
Big Weekend Dundee is another chance for us to show that we can pull off amazing music events as a city.
It might even be the start of a journey towards Dundee hosting its own major music festival in the future. Now, wouldn’t that be something to look forward to?
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