The popular festival, held annually in Cooper Park in Elgin, beat major competitors including TRNSMT Festival and Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival to secure the national accolade.

The awards celebrate the very best of Scotland’s live music scene. Festival organiser Andy MacDonald spoke of his pride after collecting the honour.

He said: “I’m absolutely buzzing. We celebrated hard and it still feels like a dream. To bring a national award like this back to Moray means everything to us. What makes it even more special is that MacMoray is a local independent festival, built by the community. To be recognised and beat huge events like TRNSMT and Belladrum is incredible. I’m unbelievably proud of what we’ve achieved and I honestly can’t thank the MacMorians enough. Their support is what makes this festival what it is. I feel incredibly lucky and fortunate to be part of it. We did it.” Andy has confirmed that “infamous duo” Garry Spence and Steven Mill will host the main stage, while DJ Jammie will take charge of stage two. The lineup has also been strengthened with the addition of The Jarad Rowan Band, joining an already star-studded bill featuring The Fratellis, 2 Unlimited, The Wanted and Basshunter, among others.

This year’s MacMoray festival will take place on May 2 and May 3 at Cooper Park.

– By Ewan Malcolm (ewan.malcolm@hnmedia.co.uk) via The Northern Scot (12:56, 09 March 2026)

Next week we have Christmas at the castle in Banchory and then we head to login fund sonny’s days caravan in Lossie for the week of Christmas something different and exciting for her and all of us as a family to be able to do something normal together was an amazing opportunity. It’s been an absolute blast to be invited to all the events after all she’s been through it’s incredible thats she’s been well enough to attend ❤️

She had chemo in Aberdeen just before Christmas and started back on steroids for another week so, was another episode of eating us out of house and home and multiple midnight snacks that continued till 4am! Not to mention the steroid-tantrums, poor toot doesn’t know if she was coming or going on top of that she has had extra medication added to help with neuropathy pain in her legs struggles to walk most days and gets tired easily but over all she doing great currently with is an absolute blessing ❤️‍🩹🥰

I’d just like to wish everyone a massive happy new year and thank-you for all the continued support 😊 🎉”

– Eilidh Hendry (Lotus-Maeve’s Mother) – 20/10/25

“MacMoray started the way most of my mad/silly ideas do,” Andy said of the festival’s founding. That is with a lot of love, a lot of passion, and absolutely no guarantee it would work! “I believed Moray deserved a proper live music festival, one built for the people, not for profit and by one their own. What I didn’t expect was for it to sell out completely. That first year set the tone for everything that followed. The next year, we took a leap of faith and grew it into a two-day festival with a 10,000-per-day capacity. Bigger production, bigger challenges, bigger nerves… but once again, we hit capacity. And we’ve done that every single year since. The people believed in what I was building.”

On hearing of the award nomination, Andy said he “immediately” poured himself a dram and did a family toast.

“I felt really greatful and honoured,” he said. “I would love to say best of luck to the rest of the competition… But I wouldn’t mean it!

“I believe that our community and our festival deserve to do well.

“We’ve come along way together and we are the most popular event in the UK based on customer interaction and popularity so it would be great for our community and our beautiful county to be recognised on the national scale.”

Information sourced from The Northen Scot (By Jonny Clark – jonny.clark@hnmedia.co.uk / 19 December 2025)

UB40, who have sold more than 100 million albums and have had more than 50 charting singles in the UK, will headline the festival on Sunday, May 3.

The group, known internationally for their hit ‘Red, Red Wine’, was formed in Birmingham in 1978 and currently consists of 11 members. Lead singer Matt Doyle joined the band in 2021, taking over from Duncan Campbell, UB40’s lead singer since 2008, who retired after suffering a stroke

The current line-up features long-time members, including Martin Meredith (saxophone/WX7/keyboards); Laurence Parry (trumpet/flugal trombone) and Ian Thompson(saxophone).

MacMoray Festival organiser Andy MacDonald said he was “buzzing” to secure such a big band.

“I have always Loved UB40 and grew up loving their music,” he said. “It’s a band that has been requested so many times and, finally, I’m proud to announce they are coming to MacMoray. I needed a band from the 80s to perform and these guys are perfect. I’m humbled to know that MacMoray is making noise on a national scale and now more and more big names are wanting to perform here. I’m absolutely buzzing.”

Early today, it was announced that Black Lace – a fan favourite at the 2025 running of MacMoray Festival – would be returning to the event in 2026 to play the main stage on Saturday, May 2. The Saturday main stage line-up so far is: The Fratellis; Black Lace; Skippinish; Alice Deejay; Punk Rock Factory; Ru Mac; MacTa; The Wanted and George Bowie. The Sunday main stage is: UB40; Basshunter; 2 Unlimited; Tide Lines; Torridon; Cammy Barnes; East 17 and Drums ‘n’ Roses. Tickets for both days are available online at macmoray.com – grab yours quickly as 96% have already been sold.

Information sourced from The Northen Scot (By Jonny Clark – jonny.clark@hnmedia.co.uk / 12 December 2025)

We also made it to the pumpkin patch and she had lots of fun🥳🥳

We are over the moon to finally be starting her 2 year block of maintenance next Tuesday. We are currently on a a week free of chemo before maintenance which is still pretty intense with weekly chemo in-between and daily chemo at home, also a surgery only every 3 months with the first one on week 3.

Everything seems so surreal and I cant believe we have finally made it to this point. Lotus-Maeve really is a fighter and with the support from everyone of you at MacMoray she keeps on fighting and hopefully will be able to attend next years festival – we have everything crossed 💓

Will update again soon with how maintenance is going until then here is some photos of lotus-maeve  enjoying her tattie holidays”

– Eilidh Hendry (Lotus-Maeve’s Mother) – 20/10/25

We are finally on the last round of chemo before heading on to 2 years of maintenance which involves chemo monthly instead of daily and weekly which is absolutely incredible to think she has come this far, she really is just amazing! Last week she was in theatre and took her self there on an little electric car which was so much fun for her! As soon as she got in, she pressed the pedal and went flying – the nurse was running along side with the drip! I had to go in front to stop her from taking off and pulling the drip needle out so it quickly got changed to remote control mode, where one of the surgeons had to guide her down haha!

She knew none the wiser though and still had the best time, then got to play with a bubble machine before heading off for a sleep for surgery, where she endured a lumber puncture and chemo into the brain though her spine and a new temporary line fitted that goes though her arm to her heart as the Porta-Cath she has had so many problems with and she is completely traumatised each time it is accessed by the gripper which had a big needle where they take bloods from and use for administrating medications and chemo’s. The new line is so much easier on her as it is needle-less and no more traumatic scenes. Thankfully however only temporary, im hoping the change with her main line to a hickman line which is a similar idea just the wait is a nightmare but this helps in the mean time.

Must of had a lot of dreams of the blue car as when she woke up thats all she wanted, so will definitely be treating her to one as she fell in love – bless her! She is currently on daily chemo at home and still has surgery again near the end of the month. 

It’s Childhood cancer awareness month and I honestly couldn’t be more amazed of how Lotus-Maeve has coped and how incredibly well she has fought through this whole journey! I’m the proudest mum in the whole world to have such a brave kind beautiful little girl who has fought and fought and just keeps on fighting, as she will till the very end and beat  cancer in the a** 💪🏻💪🏻🧡🎗🎗🎗”

– Eilidh Hendry (Lotus-Maeve’s Mother) – 15/09/25

Her neutrophils dropped to 0.0, which means it will take a long time for her to recover, as neutrophils are what help fight off infections. It’s awful. We were in isolation for 5 days, then moved to the oncology ward for 2 days. We finally got out for just 2 days before she had to be taken in again by ambulance on Friday after another big temperature spike. She was very weak and screaming in pain.

Right now, she’s back on IV fluids and more antibiotics and is suffering immensely with pain. The doctors don’t really know what to do at the moment—everything is just a waiting game. She really needs morphine, but they’re hesitant to give it to her because she was constipated yesterday, and they’re worried it might make things worse. Ironically, today it’s the opposite—she has diarrhoea, though it’s still taking her a long time to go, bless her.

Sorry for the TMI, but I have a gut feeling that something much more serious is going on inside her little body. I just wish they would hurry up and do more investigations. It’s heartbreaking seeing her so unwell. She’s barely sleeping or eating—it’s just been a disaster.

They’ve said we’ll most likely be in the hospital for at least another week. She never gets a break. Life is so unfair. We’re back in isolation again, and I’ve no idea when we’ll be moved back to the oncology ward. Time just seems to be dragging on endlessly—I honestly don’t even know what day it is anymore.

It’s been a whirlwind of a few weeks, that’s for sure. At this point, I’m just praying for a miracle. 🙏”

– Eilidh Hendry (Lotus-Maeve’s Mother) – 21/07/25

One of the more serious side effects is potential future heart problems. Even more concerning is that it, along with many of her previous treatments, can increase the risk of secondary cancers. I only found this out today, and it’s been quite a shock.

She’s looking a bit pale today, so they’re repeating her blood tests just to be safe, even though yesterday’s results were perfectly fine. She’s also very sleepy. The steroids seem to be kicking in already — she’s currently craving baked beans, and it’s only her first dose this morning! Bless her heart, she’s still doing fantastically and fighting as hard as ever.

Her last bone marrow results came back negative for leukemia, which is absolutely amazing. We’re hopeful it continues that way. But even with the positive news, it’s hard to fully take it in — she still has cancer, and that’s a tough reality. I’m just taking it one day at a time and trying to hold on to the positives.

Before her surgery yesterday, she had some messy playtime, and today she’s been painting and playing pretend kitchens — she even made me a beautiful cup of tea. I’ll send some photos of both soon.

They also tried a different method of putting her to sleep this time. Normally, they use her port and gripper, but lately it’s been really difficult to access. Sometimes it takes up to seven attempts in one sitting, which causes her a lot of trauma, anxiety, and stress. So this time, they used a mask to put her to sleep first before accessing it.

I’m pushing to have the port replaced with a Hickman line, which is another way to give her medications without constantly using cannulas. Ironically, the port was meant to avoid that, but since it was fitted, we’ve had non-stop issues. She’s still had to have cannulas many times, which brings a lot of tears.

Now, just walking into the ward or Dr. Gray’s causes her to cry and scream in fear. She’s terrified they’ll take her blood or access her port. It’s heartbreaking to watch my baby go through panic attacks like this — and she’s only 2 years old.

But through it all, she’s a total superstar and braver than I can describe. She gets through it every single time. “

– Eilidh Hendry (Lotus-Maeve’s Mother) – 03/07/25

Andy hopes to turn the church in which his parents were married and he was christened into a live music venue. He has submitted an offer to purchase the out-of-use St Gerardine’s Church and aims to create a “global music destination”. The reaction to the news on our social media was phenomenal – with the post reaching 1,000 likes in a matter of hours. Nearly all comments were exceedingly positive.

What are your thoughts? Is this the right future for St Gerardine’s?

– Jonny Clark – 25/06/25