Dalkeith music festival set to return

The Bowl at Dalkeith Country Park, the new home of Midlothian music festival, Midstock.

The festival will take place on July 24 and 25, again at Dalkeith Country Park, but in the smaller 3000 capacity “bowl” opposite its original home next to Dalkeith Palace.

The Friday adult-only night will feature dance acts including Dave Pearce, Ultra-Sonic and N-Trance. While the family-friendly Saturday will see tribute acts Foo Fighters GB, Almost Pink, The Phonics and Deacon Blues perform.

Organiser Wullie Slight is delighted the festival is returning, following five consecutive years. He said: “It’s good to be back after a nice year off. I think we had that much to do last year I just knew it was time for a break. We were working on the next festival before we got to that year’s.

“It’s good to be back, but in a different area of the country park. It doesn’t hold as many people as before, nearly half of what we had. We are really looking forward to having our Midstock crowd back again, giving them a great weekend’s entertainment. Tickets are reasonably priced, a little less than before.”

Speaking about the line-up Wullie said: “The Saturday will be tribute bands all day, from around the musical spectrum, a bit of everything. It’s a nice eclectic mix of genres. All very highly regarded people in the industry. And we have some of the most popular artists on the club and dance scene on the Friday night.

“We are absolutely delighted with the line-up. It’s a great mix. Once again we are really chuffed with what we’ve got.

“We think it will be an absolutely fantastic weekend.”

Midstock logo

With a smaller venue, the Midstock team are hoping for an easier task, having come up against competition for the first time last year, with the Let’s Rock festival making its Scottish debut at Dalkeith Country Park. Wullie said: “We have the same team here, all the same people. So hopefully this will now be a more manageable and hopefully a big more stress free.

“We had a tough year when we came up against Let’s Rock last year. We have had to accept that. The park caters for a lot of different events and we are just part of that, which we are happy to deal with.

“We have a great relationship with the park.”

Tickets, £11.99 - £39.50, at www.skiddle.com/festivals/Midstock/.