RockNess is thrill for music fans
CAITHNESS music fans were among those to enjoy this year’s RockNess festival staged by the shores of Loch Ness.
The annual event at Dores attracted thousands of revellers from around the country as top acts such as Kasabian, the Chemical Brothers and Glasvegas took to the stage. Festivities drew to a close on Sunday night when Scottish singer Paolo Nutini brought the curtain down on the three-day spectacular.
Police reported there were a total of 243 positive drugs searches over the duration of the event – three of which relate to drug-dealing offences.
Northern Constabulary had a total of 11 reported crimes for offences including breach of the peace, assault and theft.
Event commander Stevie Mackay said: “On the whole it has been a largely positive event. We had slightly higher numbers of people attempting to take drugs into the event, which is disappointing given the warning messages we issued prior to RockNess, but these numbers are still low when looking at the numbers that attended. We worked hard to reduce the amount of drugs available at the event.
“We, as with previous years, have experienced low levels of reported crime which is largely to do with the fact that everyone came to enjoy the event and played a part in keeping themselves and others safe.”
Event medical commander Iain Mackay, of the Scottish Ambulance Service, revealed there had been no serious medical incidents.
“We’ve managed to reduce the numbers taken onwards to Raigmore Hospital for medical attention to 14 people, the majority of which went for treatment to injuries,” he said.
“The total number of people treated on site was 533, which is similar to last year, 288 of which were treated in the field hospital.
“As with last year we saw there was a large number of people being treated for excessive alcohol consumption and injuries relating to this, and, although we don’t have a final figure, we feel there was a reduction in drug-related medical matters which is in part due to the stemmed supply through police work.”