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A full capacity crowd descended on Park Farm, Dumfries on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 July for the UK’s largest free youth music festival. An audience of around 40,000 over the course of the weekend were entertained by fantastic performances on the Main Stage, Second Stage and Third Stage. The Youth Beatz Festival Main Stage featured performances from headliners HRVY, B*Witched, Joel Corry, Callum Beattie, Vengaboys and Ella Henderson – as well as some performers from across Dumfries and Galloway. The Second Stage, run in partnership with DMC (Dumfries Music Collective), featured performers from across Dumfries and Galloway and the rest of Scotland including Becca Starr, The Rahs, The High Priestess and Euan Pattie. The Third Stage featured performances from dance acts from across the region, including Stranraer, Newton Stewart, Dumfries and Lockerbie.

Over the weekend, social media has been full of posts, tags and comments, with some of the acts also getting involved in posting content. Saturday headliner Joel Corry posted to Instagram “Always love coming to Scotland, Dumfries it was a pleasure, thanks for all the love.” Sunday headliner Ella Henderson found out just before her performance that her new single 0800 HEAVEN with Joel Corry and Nathan Dawe hit number one on the Big Top 40. She shared on her Instagram “Thank you @capitalofficial!! #0800HEAVEN hit no.1 on the @bigtop40 the same day as we were performing in Dumfries, so I got everyone to join in for a huge THANK YOU, more to come.”

Sunday headliner Callum Beattie posted to his social media “that’s what this life is all about!” and shared lots of the crowd’s tagged Instagram stories onto his own channel.

The Toon youth drama production is a major feature of Youth Beatz and is designed to be a hard hitting and shocking way of providing information to young people aged 14 to 25 about current issues that may be affecting them or may affect them in the future. 

The interactive experience was host to over 2257 young people on the Youth Beatz Festival weekend – that is on top of the schools shows and preview performances to 1851 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.

Some of the comments from young people who went through The Toon were:

“Toon gives you information in a different way, and the fact its designed by young people makes it more relatable.”

“The Toon really opened my eyes as to what young people today go through, and it’s good to know you are never alone with how you’re feeling.”

“The Toon young volunteers have done a fantastic job again in delivering their drama production, a huge well done to them all.”

Other attractions on the weekend included a wide range of activities from youth information to giant inflatables. Youth work partners promoted their services alongside partners from local and national community organisations within the youth information marketplace. The Kids Tent was non-stop all day, featuring performances from Daffy Dill, Road Runner, Uncle Billy and Double Trouble, and turned into a family rave each night with Big Fish Little Fish.

Chair of Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Communities Committee, Councillor Ian Blake said: “Dumfries and Galloway Council is once again delighted with the high-quality event that has been delivered in our region. As the UK’s largest free youth music festival, Youth Beatz has highlighted what our region has to offer, and this would not be possible without the help and valuable inputs of all of the dedicated staff, the Events Team and volunteers, and we are incredibly appreciative of all of their fantastic efforts.”

One young person attending the festival over the weekend said: “Thank you for two absolutely fantastic days.”

Another festival goer said: “Well done to everyone involved in organising, staffing and supporting this event. It was such an amazing weekend! Youth Beatz gets bigger and better every year, and we are so lucky to have such a brilliant event on our doorstep!”

Families and young people travelled from across Scotland for the event. One said: “Well done guys, Inverclyde young people visiting you guys had a blast. As always, amazing.”

Vice-Chair of Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Communities Committee, Councillor Jackie McCamon said of the event: “We are so proud to host Scotland’s largest free youth music event right here in Dumfries and Galloway. We welcomed 40,000 young people from across our region and the rest of Scotland, and the feedback has been amazing from attendees. Youth Beatz is more than a music festival, it allows young people to broaden their horizons and to try new things, and we already can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2024.”

Another key feature of the festival is the Youth Beatz Fringe which runs in the lead up to the event, and this year featured events in each ward area of our region. The events that featured were all well attended by members of the local community, and included silent discos, football nights, pool parties, outdoor cinemas and family fun days.

The award-winning event was managed through a partnership led by Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Young People’s Service in conjunction with the Oasis Events Team and Event Scotland. Funding for the event has been secured from Young Start, CashBack for Communities, Magnox, Youth Link Scotland and Alcohol and Drugs Partnership Dumfries and Galloway.

The Council’s Youth Work Service would like to thank all partners involved in planning the event and hopefully look forward to building on the success in the future. To view pictures of the event, head to our social media channels and check out our website www.youthbeatz.co.uk

ENDS