First up, congrats to the organisers for:- a) managing to keep this under wraps for as long as they have; b) securing some extremely good acts for a debut festival; and c) managing to persuade the useless individuals at Aberdeen City Council to get this off the gound. I'll definitely be parting ways with my 90 at payday for tickets. However, I do have a real concern about the local band aspect and how this is going to operate. The whole Northern Lights event is a great opportunity for the varied scope of Aberdeen/North-East bands to be brought to the fore. I'm not in a band (nor have I been) but I understand that there is going to be "showcase" events at Tunnels/Drummonds for local bands to then be selected? How are bands going to be selected from these showcases? Is there not the real danger that this is going to be the usual sham of a showcase/battle of the bands type scenario? Especially, given that the showcases are being run/organised by the same people who represent/promote certain bands in Aberdeen who will have a singificant interest in their artists being those selected? I'm advised that at least one of the bands who are on the list of represented artists are definitely playing the festival already. Will be interesting to see if they are included in the showcase line-ups......
