A capacity crowd descended on Park Farm, Dumfries last weekend for Youth Beatz, the UK’s largest free youth music festival.
An audience of around 40,000 over the weekend was entertained by fantastic performances on the Youth Enquiry Service Stage from up and coming local performers, including Alix Apples, Just The Brave, DG Cheer, Caitlin Purdie, Connor Fyfe and Ethan Malcolm, followed by brilliant performances on the Oasis Centre Stage by festival headliners The Vamps, Sigma, Louisa and Professor Green.
Festival goers were also entertained by sets from the ever-popular I Am A Raver, featuring DJ Rankin, DJ Bad Boy, DJ Dexi, Gary McF, DJ Cammy, and DJ Zitkus.
Social media has been full of activity and going crazy over the course of the weekend, with some of the acts getting involved on social media. On Twitter, The Vamps member Connor Ball tweeted: “Amazing gig Dumfries. Thanks so much for having us. Now we’re off to write some songs!”
Saturday Headliner Louisa said “That was fun, thanks for having me! @youthbeatzofficial.”
Nathan Grisdale who headlined the Oasis Centre Main Stage on Saturday night said: “That was AMAZING! Thank you for having me guys!”
Scottish singer songwriter Kerri Watt said before her performance: “@youthbeatz1 festival, I’ll see you on stage in 25 minutes, can’t wait to party with you!”
Just The Brave, a popular young Scottish boyband tweeted after their performance: “Youth Beatz was amazing today. Thanks so much for all of your support, you’re the best. Tag us in your pics and vids – Leo.”
THE TOON PRESENTS “DISNAE”, which is a major feature of Youth Beatz, is designed to be a hard hitting and shocking way of providing information to young people 14 – 25 about current issues that may be affecting them or may affect them in the future.
The interactive experience was hosted more than 3,600 young people on the Youth Beatz weekend – that is on top of the schools shows and preview performances to 2,000 young people in the week leading up to the festival weekend.
Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Youth Work Service, together with partners, support a group of young volunteers to deliver the interactive youth zone by attendance at issue-based training plus performance and production camps. The Toon invites groups of young people to experience issues focussed on domestic abuse, knife crime, drugs and alcohol, mental health and bullying in short interpretive scenes. The Toon got a surprise visit on Sunday night from festival Headliner Professor Green, who took the time to go through a scene from the drama production, and meet all of the young people involved.
Some of the comments from young people who went through The Toon were:
“I loved the theme this year, it was really interactive. The Peter Pan scene was excellent.”
“The Toon really opened my eyes as to what young people today go through, and knowing that I’m not alone.”
“What an eye-opening experience, a fantastic way of engaging young people in a peer educated approach.”
Other attractions on the weekend included a wide range of youth work activities from Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Young Persons Services team, activities from the Lifelong Learning and Wellbeing Team promoting their services. Youth work partners promoted their services alongside partners from local and national community organisations. The Kids tent was non-stop all day, and turned into a Dance Tent at night, which was packed both evenings. The performances delivered by local and national young people on the Youth Enquiry Service Stage and the Oasis Centre Main Stage were incredible.
Young People’s Champion, Councillor Adam Wilson, said: “Dumfries and Galloway Council is once again delighted with the high-quality event that has been delivered in our region, enjoyed by 40,000 young people over the course of the weekend. As Scotland’s largest free youth music festival, we have highlighted what Dumfries and Galloway has to offer and put it on the map as a destination for young people from across the country. This couldn’t have been delivered without the valuable input of all of the dedicated staff, events team and volunteers and we’re very appreciative of all their outstanding efforts.”
One young person attending the festival over the weekend said: “Had an absolute blast this week at Youth Beatz in Dumfries! What a day!”
Another festival goer said: “For my first ever festival Youth Beatz you have out done yourself, I travelled from Aberdeen and it was so worth it!”
Families travelled from across Scotland for the event. One said: “Dumfries and Galloway should be really proud of themselves, such an amazing event, and very well organised!”
The award-winning event was managed through a partnership led by Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Young Persons Service in conjunction with the Oasis Events Team and Event Scotland. Funding for the event was secured from Dumfries and Galloway Council, Young Start, CashBack for Communities, Magnox, Creative Scotland, Alcohol and Drugs Partnership Dumfries and Galloway, the Robertson Trust, and YouthLink Scotland.
The Council’s Young Persons Service thanks all partners involved in planning the event and look forward to building on the success in the future.
Images Copyright DGWGO
