The organiser of MacMoray has spoken of his pride after Moray’s biggest music event was nominated for Scotland’s Festival of the Year. MacMoray Festival, which takes place annually across two days in Elgin’s Cooper Park, has been longlisted for the honour at the Scottish Live Music Awards.
“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.”
