Music lovers enjoyed a bittersweet Party in the Park music festival last weekend as its tenth anniversary year is likely to be its last.
Hundreds of people gathered at Kirkton Park for a full day of music and entertainment as the popular event returned after a two-year break due to covid restrictions.
Since it started in 2010, festival organisers have always championed local talent – Lewis Capaldi made one of his first appearances at the event before his meteoric rise to stardom.
This year saw the likes of Blondie tribute act Dirty Harry, Jason Sweeney Band, Cedar Rapids, Skyline and Scott Simpson.
Stuart MacDonald, chair the Friends of Kirkton Park community group, who organised the event every year, said that the decision to make this year’s event the last was made with a very heavy
heart.
He says that he’s also sad to see the end of the annual Christmas Carol event and fireworks show on Christmas Eve, but that both events were becoming too costly and nobody would come forward to join their committee to help run the events despite several appeals being made for help.
He explained: “Party in the Park started 12 years ago, but we missed two years because of covid, so Sunday was the tenth anniversary.
“It has always been a great success, but it was getting harder and harder every year to raise the funds.
“It costs between £11,000 and £12,000 to run the event. I’s a free event and raising the money every year is getting harder and harder.
“The committee is fundamentally the same committee that started it 12 years ago.
“It has gotten smaller every year and older every year and it has been harder to do the physical stuff with a smaller amount of people.”
Stuart went on: “It has gotten to the point that it has become less and less attractive to the committee, so we
made the decision at the start of the
year to make this our last Party in the Park.”
Stuart added that while the committee has made the decision to disband, he hopes that someone will one day bring back the popular events – albeit without the existing members.
He continued: “None of the existing committee would be involved if anyone took it on.
“It would need to be a totally new committee.
“We have been trying to attract younger people to the committee
for years, but there has not been a
great response and it’s a bit of a commitment to make.
“We have two events; Party at the Palace in September and Christmas Carols and fireworks on Christmas Eve, so we have two big events to plan for in a year and it’s a big commitment and take a lot of organisational skills and a lot of effort and it doesn’t appear that there are many young people willing to take that on.”
On a personal note, Stuart added: “I would love for someone to take it on, because then I would be able to enjoy Party at the Park!
“I spend a 12-hour day at it setting things up and clearing things away and the committee is running about all day making sure that everything runs smoothly, so we don’t get the chance to enjoy it.”
Stuart said there will be a meeting which will effectively dissolve the committee.
However, members might be interested in advising anybody who did perhaps want to look at taking things forward.
Stuart said that some of the many highlights over the years have been giving young talent the chance to perform on
stage and seeing Kirkton Park flourish again.
He continued: “Myself and one of the committee members, Jim Saunders, came up with the idea because Jim
and I are old enough to remember when there used to be live rock music in Kirkton Park when the old band stand was there and we’re both old enough to remember enjoying that and seeing big crowds of people on the hill.
“The biggest joy for me was just bringing music back to the park and it has been great to give young local talent the chance to perform in front of an audience.
“Part of the process was getting the tennis courts refurbished as well and we got the totem pole done at the entrance of the park. So just to see the park improving and use of the park increasing has been really great.”
Stuart added: “The members of the committee should be congratulated for all their hard work over the last 12 years.”
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