Music lovers enjoy bittersweet Party at the Park festival as event bows out after 10 years

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Music lovers enjoyed a bittersweet Party at 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