After an over night stay in Mairi’s car - yes we drove to Glasgow after work for Anna’s leaving doo, then back up the road to Aviemore and parked about 5 miles from the festival as it was 2am and we didn’t want to pitch the tent in the dark!

Anyway, we got up and headed over to the Outsider Festial in Rothiemurchas. We arrived and found a spot to pitch the tent - it was a wee walk from the car so we did it in a couple of runs. Tent assembled and car unpacked we decided to have some breakfast. Mairi cooked up a mean bacon sandwich on our new camping stove and we tucked into it. About 30 mins after clearing up, the rain started! And I mean rain! It then continued all weekend turning us both into drowned rats and the festival into a mud bath! Not to dampen our spirits though, we headed into the festival. We saw Capercaillie in the afternoon and around dinner time we went to the big tent (dry!) for Blazin Fiddles. They were excellent live and we joined Malc and Fiona down the front for some beers and good music! Afterwards, we headed back to the tent to have some tea. Mairi again did a maverlous job cooked Gnocchi in the rain on a camp stove. We then headed back into the arena for an evening of good music. We saw Idlewild (one of my favourite bands) - they were excellent live and kept us all going. KT Tunstall then headlined and we all enjoyed her songs.

Back to the tent, to sleep, keep warm and get dry! We awoke in the morning to the now familar sound of rain on the tent. Not amused we kept sleeping and got up around lunchtime. We finished off the bacon and headed into the arena. First up was Roddy Woomble (lead singer of Idlewild) whose acoustic folky stuff is amazing. So Scottish and so good! Eddi Reader followed - on the main stage in the rain - but she was really good too. Afterwards we headed back to the tent to see Justin Currie - again a really good live musician! After dinner we met up with Malc and Fiona again, after a quick bump into Jules and we all headed over for the last act Crowded House. Tent was all packed up and we were ready to head off afterwards. Crowded House were really good, good chat and great songs!

All in all the festival was great. A really good idea to combine environmental issues with good music and good fun. Pity about the rain though - oh well it is the Highlands in Summer after all…