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T in the Park could become an adults-only event when it returns to Strathallan next year, festival boss Geoff Ellis has revealed.

The show would be open to over-18s only after the deaths of two teenagers during last summer’s festival.

The family of 17-year-old Megan Bell, who died after collapsing in the Slam tent, called for age restrictions at all festivals to help keep young music fans safe.

© DC Thomson

Mr Ellis also said he plans to “dial down” electronic dance music which he claims has divided audiences.

And he told BBC Radio Scotland that he still wants to stage the event in the grounds of Strathallan Castle – but only after “constraints” as a result of planning conditions can be resolved.

Last year, organisers DF Concerts announced T in the Park would not go ahead in 2017 to allow for more time to get on top of problems which have plagued the show since it moved to its new home two years ago.

Mr Ellis, speaking on Tuesday morning’s Kaye Adams programme, said: “T in the Park has always been open age (under 18s have had to be accompanied by someone over 21) but in the last few years we’ve seen more and more under 18s coming to the event and obviously it is becoming very difficult to police the camp site with all the alcohol that’s been brought in by people who are over 18.

He said: “These issues have always been there and they’re there at every nightclub and every pub. It’s just that I’ve noticed younger people going crazier than their counterparts did maybe five years ago.

“But this would mean that families can’t come to the event as they have done traditionally since 1994, but its just something I feel we will have to do.”

Mr Ellis said he has appealed to the Scottish Government and the NHS about tackling “harm reduction messaging”.

“Its how we change the message that goes out to young people,” he said. “And T in the Park can be part of transferring that message to teenagers. But I think there needs to be a sea-change in approach.”

Mr Ellis insisted that the reason T in the Park had been axed this year was to do with planning constraints, rather than perceptions of crime or under-age drinking.

“It is the planning constraints which are so onerous and we have to fix those and take stock before we can bring the event back,” he said.

“For example, we have to put bridges across water, but we’ve been told they have to be able to withstand a one-in-250-year flood risk which is frankly ridiculous.

“At that level of flood nobody would be coming to the festival because the roads would be impassible. The event would have been cancelled and we would claim it on the insurance.

“To have bridges that are massively over-engineered at a ridiculous price is just way too prohibitive.”

He said he was “confident and hopeful” that all issues could be resolved by next summer.

Mr Ellis said a return to Strathallan was “still on the agenda”. “We do events all over Scotland and we are always looking at different sites, but for T in the Park specifically we are not looking at anywhere else at the moment.

“We wouldn’t want to move it out of Scotland. At this stage, I would rule that out.”

Later, Mr Ellis stressed that although he was considering making the camp-site open to over 18s only, planning was at an early stage and no decision had been taken.

DF Concerts is organising TRNSMT, a new festival in Glasgow Green which will take place in July. Mr Ellis has insisted the non-camping event will be completely different to T in the Park, and is not intended as a replacement.

Dance music to be scaled back

Electronic dance music, which has threatened to dominate T in the Park line-ups in recent years, could be scaled down in an effort to reunite festival goers.

Geoff Ellis said: “We’re looking at EDM dance music, which is something that has particularly appeals to a younger audience, and that’s something I think we will dial down.

“We’re seeing a more polarised audience with people into EDM and people into guitar music, who are not tolerant of electronic music at all. We have a new breed of EDM acts who tend to divide audiences.”

He said: “It’s becoming two tribes really. It becomes two different audiences within one event.”

He said: “If we have lots of EDM, people comment that the line-up is all full of DJs, where have all the guitar bands gone?

“Its like you’ve got two different markets. You wouldn’t mix country music with heavy metal.”