Tee-hee in the Park; Don't think muddy Balado when it comes to making

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Jul 7, 2002 | by Words Stephen Phelan

FOOD There are any number of food stalls at T in the Park, offering a pan-global variety of foreign and domestic snacks. But all of them look and taste like they've been clawed out from underneath wet stones. It's a little pricier (not by much - festival catering is a shameful racket of captive-market exploitation), but you and your companions might prefer the (pounds) 500 Bloomsbury Hamper from Fortnum and Masons, which contains everything for a splendid T in the Park picnic, from the luxury items - goose liver, vintage port - to the essential survival stuff like half a ham, roasted antipasti, pears in caramel etc. (Order on www.fortnumandmasons.com.) And you can certainly afford to miss one or two of the big acts - those boorish and unbearable nouveau-riche thugs Oasis for example - to sit down for a decent evening meal.

The highly recommended Grouse and Claret Restaurant in Kinross (01577 864212) will fatten you up on seasonal game, fresh shellfish, and gressingham duck until you are more than ready to waddle back and enjoy the after-dinner entertainments of Ian Brown or The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

At dawn it might be fun to breakfast high above the festival in a hot air balloon (Alba Balloons launch daily from near Kinross, 0131 667 4251). With a bucks fizz in one hand and binoculars in the other, you can survey the morning scene with relaxed omnipotence - there's someone sleeping face-down like a dead soldier, there's someone crawling around aimlessly on their hands and knees and Good God, look what those two are doing!u T in the Park, Balado near Kinross, Saturday July 13 and Sunday July 14