Press release -

Rock Bon!

Bonfest, one of twelve events to be supported by the EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate, is set to return to Angus this weekend, 28-30 April.

The annual rock music festival has been awarded £12,500 in funding from EventScotland’s National Programme Fund to support event delivery and help develop Scotland’s varied and boundary-pushing events portfolio.

Held in Kirriemuir, and organised by not-for profit community group DD8 Music, the rock extravanganza celebrates the life and music of Bon Scott, the legendary frontman of AC/DC who hails from the Angus town.

With a packed programme of local artists and performance by some of the best international AC/DC tribute bands, the 2017 festival is set to welcome its biggest name yet as original AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd plays alongside Hayseed Dixie.

From gold panning and design, to music and food and drink, twelve events are taking place over the coming months, each receiving a share of the £140,000 Round-34 event fund.

Next month sees the return of the Dundee Design Festival (24 - 29 May), a five day celebration of world-class design. Now in its second year the event has been awarded £20,000 by the programme.

The National Programme Fund is designed to specifically support the strategic development of events which occur outside of Edinburgh and Glasgow, with the aim of driving domestic tourism, delivering economic impact for local communities and generating media profile for Scotland.

Building upon existing event activities, extending marketing reach and enhancing the on-site food and drink offer are just some of the ways national programme funds are often put to use.

Neil Christison, VisitScotland Regional Partnerships Executive, said:

“Funding delivered through the National Programme is crucial in encouraging people to travel around Scotland and contributes greatly to the economies of several local authority areas with every funding round. Additionally, it helps to promote a positive image of Scotland to audiences domestically and in neighbouring markets, which is invaluable to the visitor economy.

“These EventScotland awards will allow each event to create an even more attractive proposition to potential attendees, and we look forward to working with event organisers to realise the shared vision for their development.”

Graham Galloway of Bonfest, said

We are very lucky that we are once again this year being supported by EventScotland’s National Funding Programme. The funding award has been crucial in helping us grow our festival, and will ensure that this year’s Bonfest is our biggest and best yet.”

For more information about Bonfest visit:

https://bonfest.com/

Topics

  • Tourism

Regions

  • Scotland

Notes to Editors

  • Follow us on twitter: @visitscotnews
  • VisitScotland is Scotland’s national tourism organisation. Its core purpose is to maximise the economic benefit of tourism to Scotland.
  • The organisation’s core objective is to contribute to the Tourism 2020 Strategy ambition of growing tourism revenues by £1 billion by 2020.
  • This will be supported by seven overarching strategies:
    1. Marketing: we will market Scotland and its outstanding assets to visitors from all parts of the world, including the promotion of Scotland to people living in Scotland to visit different parts of the country
    2. Events: we will support the national events strategy and its delivery, and sustain, develop and promote Scotland’s international profile as one of the world’s foremost events destinations
    3. Internationalisation and International Engagement: we will utilise all our platforms to enable Scottish-based tourism businesses to better understand international opportunities and market to a global audience and we will work within One Scotland Partnerships to optimise the potential of Scotland’s Diaspora and our strategic partners at regional, European and global levels
    4. Customer Experience: we will provide information and inspiration to visitors both locally and globally via their preferred medium of choice
    5. Quality and Sustainability: we will provide support and advice to businesses, with the goal of improving the quality and sustainability of the tourism sector in Scotland. We will provide quality assurance to visitors through our Quality Schemes
    6. Inclusive Tourism: we will strive to make tourism in Scotland inclusive and available to all
    7. Working in Partnership: we will listen to and work with the industry, partners and communities to shape our offering and support
  • VisitScotland works together with tourism businesses to make tourism a success for everyone and ensure the industry continues to grow.
  • The organisation employs 700 people and has offices and VisitScotland Information Centres across Scotland.
  • Spending by tourists in Scotland generates around £12 billion of economic activity in the wider Scottish supply chain and contributes around £6 billion to Scottish GDP (in basic prices). This represents about 5% of total Scottish GDP.
  • The Scottish Government is the Managing Authority for the European Structural Funds 2014-20 Programme. For further information visit www.gov.scot or follow @scotgovESIF
  • For VisitScotland’s press releases go to http://www.visitscotland.org/media_centre.aspx, tourism statistics and frequently asked questions go to http://www.visitscotland.org/
  • Where possible, a Gaelic speaker will be made available for broadcast interviews on request (Far an tèid iarraidh, agus far am bheil sin nar comas, bruidhinnidh neach le Gàidhlig aig agallamh)
  • For holiday information on Scotland go to www.visitscotland.com
  • For information about business events in Scotland go to www.conventionscotland.com
    2017 Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology
  • 2017 is the year to delve into the past and discover Scotland’s fascinating stories through a wide-ranging variety of new and existing activity to drive the nation’s tourism and events sector, boosting tourism across Scotland.
  • The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology begins on 1 January 2017 and will end on 31 December 2017. It will build on the momentum generated by previous themed years in Scotland including the 2015 Year of Food and Drink, Homecoming Scotland 2014, the Year of Creative and the Year of Natural.
  • The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology is a Scottish Government initiative being led by VisitScotland, and supported by a variety of partners including Creative Scotland, Scottish Tourism Alliance, Scottish Enterprise, The National Trust for Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Built Environment Forum Scotland, Heritage Lottery Fund, Museums Galleries Scotland and Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland.
  • The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology is supported by £570,000 of Scottish Government funding.
  • The Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology events fund is managed by EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.
  • For more information visit visitscotland.com/HHA2017 or join the conversation at #HHA2017

Contacts

Carrie MacWilliam

Press contact Senior Corporate Press Officer - National Contact for media enquiries on: Travel media (Scotland); Year of Young People; UK Marketing; Dundee; Fife; Angus; Perthshire 0131 472 2052