Belladrum Festival producer Dougie Brown.
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00:00Yeah, I think we're all feeling really good. The sun's out, it's been really kind to us the weather and yeah, I think we're in a good place.
00:07A bit of both. I think it's always the way I think all of us in the office basically don't sleep for the week leading up to the festival with something that pops into your mind at 3 o'clock in the morning.
00:16But yeah, we're all feeling really positive and looking forward to welcoming everyone in 48 hours.
00:21Yeah, obviously the traffic was a major issue last year and something that we definitely not shied away from.
00:26It's been a long process with the community councils and the Highland Council, local authorities and police and fire and everyone involved.
00:33There's a lot of changes this year and we're confident that those changes will see a vast improvement in the travel to and from the festival.
00:43We've got new entrances into the car parks. We've doubled the amount of entrances for the public arriving.
00:48We've got a new parking area which is completely separate and got a separate entrance as well.
00:55So that's taking them off the main entrance that the public are coming in.
00:59We've also introduced a car parking system where tickets have been sent out to people in advance.
01:03So it'll be a colour-coded system when you arrive, you follow these directions and in theory, again, no one should be stopping and talking to security or car park stewards on the way.
01:14You just follow the signs and you park up your car and that'll hopefully speed up everything considerably.
01:19We're expecting just over 20,000 will be here across the weekend. Tickets are obviously still on sale and you can still buy them.
01:26So, yeah, we're just looking forward to a busy weekend.
01:30We keep an eye on the weather forecast on an hourly basis. It's looking pretty good.
01:36I think the chances that we will probably get a few light showers at some point, but that's why we have jackets.
01:42It's Scotland, it's the Highlands, so I think, yeah, it's all looking pretty good.
01:47Follow the signs when you're arriving in cars, but no, just have a great time.
01:53I think, you know, we all love Bella, all of us that work in it, probably as much as the audience.
01:58And, you know, we just hope everyone has a wonderful time and gets to see some incredible artists that we've got performing this year.
02:04We always take a moment to try and get out and enjoy.
02:07A lot of us have got young families, like my kids have been coming to this since they were babies.
02:12And, you know, they're now a little bit older and they actually get to explore it a bit more.
02:16But I think all the staff, we all try and make sure we get to spend a bit of time with our own families and get to explore it a little bit as well.
02:21Because I think that's as important as well for us to, you know, hopefully shape it going forward in the future years as well.