A Brief History of Wickerman Festival

Photo: Wickerman

In its 14 year history Scotland's Wickerman has grown from a small grassroots gathering to an enormous, award winning festival, ranking up there with the finest in the country.

The stunning, bucolic surrounds of Dundrennan have played host to an eclectic range of headliners throughout its history, ranging from modern pop stars to veteran icons, whilst Wickerman's infamous chilled out atmosphere has continued to convert new fans each year.

Ahead of the festival's return on the 24th and 25th of July, we grabbed a few minutes with the festival's Director Jennie Camm, daughter of Jamie Gilroy who alongside Sid Ambrose launched the festival back in 2001, to talk about five Wickerman moments that she'll never forget.

Chic & Nile Rogers

Photo: Nile Rodgers

Their performance was fantastic. It brought the whole site together and created such a great festival vibe. It was a totally inclusive performance finishing off with some lucky punters getting the chance to bop away on the main stage with the group themselves. Such a feel good show.

The Scissor Sisters

Photo: Scissor Sisters

For me this was when the Wickerman Festival raised its game in terms of production specs. This group put on a show, and from our side we needed to match that with more sophisticated equipment and more elaborate effects. To watch these guys perform in our field in South West Scotland was really quite something. 

Walking Through Family Camping

Photo: Wickerman

Dad and I walked through family camping last year. It's obviously all the more special now, but even at the time it was a pretty memorable. Dad placed a lot of value on our guests feedback. After all the Wickerman Festival is all about looking after those that attend.

They are the most important aspect of the festival. So to spend an hour wandering through the campsite chatting to people - getting their feedback but also getting the contagious feel good factor was really good and it's something that I fully intend to keep doing for years to come. It's how we get better!

10th Year Anniversary

Photo: Wickerman

To celebrate our 10th year we were lucky enough to get Louise Marshall to pipe 'Happy Birthday' to the Wickerman, as he went up in flames. We used a cherry picker to create the platform, which wasn't ideal, however she gamely clambered on and we raised it up so that people would be able to see her. It was both quite eery and very memorable

Don’t tell the bride

Photo: Don't Tell The Bride

This gets a mention just simply because its impossible to forget it! I think it still rates as one of the top 10 episodes they did. It was great viewing from beginning to end - with Dad in the middle acting as the calming influence, not something he was well known for!!

Seeing the wedding guests, in all their finery, arrive by tractor and trailer with the bride turning up to her wedding - not to a plush city hotel but instead to the Wickerman Festival, was just too good.

And when you thought it couldn't get any better the happy”ish" married couple suddenly turned up on the main stage, as husband and wife, to then shortly follow this with a reverse bungee. I think we still have her shoes at home somewhere?!

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