Proclaimers set the seal on brilliant B-fest
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MORE than 2500 revellers flocked to Wick’s Riverside for blistering sunshine, top music and fun-filled entertainment as B-fest returned for the third time.
A huge crowd turned out at the weekend for this year’s most northerly mainstream music festival and the addition of a new Friday night opening of the site made it the biggest and most successful yet.
Top Scottish duo The Proclaimers rounded off the weekend perfectly, closing festivities with a hearty rendition of "I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)", backed by hundreds of enthusiastic Caithness voices.
Local bands kicked off proceedings 24 hours earlier with the Outlanders taking to the main stage first.
Later on, Thurso’s Jamie Reid played a selection of his own work before Always the Sixth got the crowd warmed up for Wick’s Sid Davidson who took to the stage accompanied by a band for the first time, having played solo at the previous two festivals.
Caithness’s only rap outfit Crazy Cottage pulled one of the biggest crowds of Friday night. Sheppy said he was nervous playing to the nearly 400-strong crowd but it didn’t show in his acoustic performance and The Maginot Band — formerly the Maydays — put on a superb set, with their new name and sound proving more popular than ever. Finishing Friday night with a bang was Motherwell’s the La Fontaines.
The combination of rock, rap and melodic pop in a high energy performance worked a treat and the gig was a highlight for frontman Kerr Okan too.
"We played here last year in the tent and that was the first time we had ever been up here to Wick or the Thurso area and we got a really good response — which was very nice," he told the Caithness Courier.
"Then to be asked back to headline the Friday night is fantastic.
"It was brilliant fun and nice playing a bigger stage.
"It was also the first kind of major-ish Scottish festival we’ve headlined."
It wasn’t plain sailing for the boys though, as they arrived in Inverness the previous night on the back of a pick-up truck after their tour bus broke down.
But a quick trip to a mechanics allowed the group to shoot up the A9 on Friday morning in time for a sound check.
