TRNSMT close to sell-out as festival gears up for third year

TRNSMT is “on the cusp of selling out” as Glasgow city centre prepares for the third year of the festival.

Stormzy headlines the main stage on Friday at Glasgow Green, with Catfish and the Bottlemen and George Ezra topping the bill on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Around 50,000 revellers are expected to descend on the park each day, with the weather forecast to be dry with very few showery spells.

Festival director Geoff Ellis told PA that Friday and Saturday tickets were in short supply and the headliners were looking forward to playing the weekend.

He said: “Stormzy had a great Glastonbury and he only wanted to do two festivals this year.

“When we got the call – pretty much a year ago – saying he wants to do Glastonbury and TRNSMT, that’s really cool to get.

“He played the first year here and had a fantastic gig, went on about 4pm and had a full crowd watching him and that was great. I certainly won’t be missing him.”

Mr Ellis added: “I think as you saw at Glastonbury he puts on some show so I think for the spectacle definitely I wouldn’t avoid Stormzy.

“But there’s some great talent from the Queen Tut’s stage to the King Tut’s stage to the main stage, we’ve got some wonderful DJs.

“It’s great that artists want to play Glasgow, Scotland and TRNSMT.”

Other acts to feature over the weekend include Gerry Cinnamon and Bastille on the main stage, Example on the King Tut’s stage and a Queen Tut’s stage with a line-up full of female artists.

Snow Patrol and Jess Glynne were originally lined up but pulled out in the weeks before in what the festival director described as a “challenge”.

Scottish artists Lewis Capaldi and Emeli Sande were announced as replacements for both Sunday main stage acts.

Ellis told PA: “That’s been the difficult thing this year, replacing major acts on the bill, but otherwise you can never be complacent.

“To get replacements in in that kind of time frame is very difficult and we’ve been very, very fortunate

“Lewis Capaldi stepped in and said ‘yes, I can do it’ – he’s rearranged some personal holidays to do it but we’re delighted with that.

He added: “It took us slightly longer to get Emeli Sande in but the day after we announced Lewis was replacing Snow Patrol I recall from Lewis’s agent who also looks after Jess said ‘all that went well, now let’s see how you get on with replacing Jess coz she’s not going to be able to do it either’.

“Obviously in her first time at TRNSMT, (Sande) has got a great back catalogue, really big live show with some great musicians with her. That’s going to be phenomenal.

“And great that they were able to pull that together at such short notice because they’re actually in Switzerland on Saturday and they managed to get everything turned around to get over here in time – booking private planes and really pulling their finger out all the production things.

“All credit to them for taking on the challenge.”

As well as food outlets and bars across Glasgow Green, there will be a McDonalds McNugget experience for festival-goers to take in.

Cup refund points will also be available next to the bars.

Mr Ellis said: “People know that it’s a proper event, it’s the biggest event in Scotland with 50,000 people per day – there’s not many places now that can do that for a festival anywhere in the world let alone just in Scotland.

“The last two years of TRNSMT have been wonderful and that makes it a lot easier to get artists to come back.

“And we’ve got a really unique selling point with artists in a fantastic audience as well who really ‘gie it laldy’ as they say.”

He added: “Being at something like TRNSMT isn’t just about the bands on stage it’s about the overall atmosphere and being with 50,000 people who are kinda like-minded.

“We’ve got some great food, different bars all over the site so hopefully you won’t have to queue long to get a drink, you can come and chill out and enjoy yourself.

“It’s a loud, busy oasis in the city centre of Glasgow.”