KT Tunstall to sing at Queensferry Crossing opening celebration

KT Tunstall and King Creosote will be among performers at the official opening of the Queensferry Crossing on Monday, it was announced today.

Fifer KT Tunstall grew up in St Andrews. Picture: Getty

The Fife musicians will appear together in a 40-minute set as part of the celebratory event in Rosyth.

It will follow the Queen cutting a ribbon on the south side of the bridge and unveiling plaque at the north end.

The Red Arrows will fly over the bridge to mark the opening, while a flotilla of more than 90 small boats will sail across the Forth nearby.

Others artists taking part include Roddy Hart & The Lonesome Fire and Karine Polwart.

Hart will compere the event, which will feature a specially-composed poem read by Scots Makar Jackie Kay.

A grandstand to seat 4,000 guests for the show has been built beside the construction site offices at The Cube, just west of the bridge in Fife.

Bridge workers, local people and school pupils are among those invited to the two-hour event, which starts at 10:30am.

The Queen, who is due to be accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, will be met at the South Queensferry end on the bridge by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Edinburgh Lord Provost Frank Ross, who is also the city's Lord Lieutenant.

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland will read a blessing before the Queen cuts a ribbon and is driven across the bridge.

Pete Irvine, who is organising the Rosyth event, said: "It's going to be a very special event, for the workforce and people associated with the bridge, and the local community.

"This is the response of Scotland's cultural community to this fabulous piece of architecture.

"It will be like a mini festival."

Two five-minute films will also be shown, one by Leith-based Micky MacPherson about the bridge builders, featuring 50 pupils from Bankton Primary School in Livingston filmed singing in hard hats in North Queensferry.

The other, by Don Coutts, called A Love Letter to Scotland's Bridges, will include more than 40 from across the country , from the Royal Border Bridge in Berwick-upon-Tweed to the Kylesku Bridge in Sutherland.

The Queensferry Crossing has been closed since early today and will not re-open to traffic until early on Thursday.

This is for bridge walks this weekend and on Tuesday, and a clear-up operation the following day.

Traffic first used the Queensferry Crossing on Wednesday and yesterday before being switched back to the Forth Road Bridge.