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'Party animals' flock to Belladrum for festival's final day

Steven McKenzieHighlands and Islands reporter
News imageBBC The families are dressed in blow-up animal costumes and polka dot dresses and animal print onsies. BBC
The Morton and Maciver families from Inverness embraced Belladrum's party animals theme

Music fans have arrived for the final day of Belladrum, dressed to the Highland festival's theme for this year - party animals.

More than 20,000 people are expected to attend the event, near Beauly, between Thursday and Saturday.

Manchester indie band James, whose hits included Sit Down and Laid in the 1990s and Getting Away With It in 2001, will headline the main stage later.

Bassist Jim Glennie said their performance could include a taster of some of the music from a new album the band is working on.

The weekend so far has seen performances on the Hot House main stage by Callum Beattie, Mika, The Human League, Rizzle Kicks and Scouting for Girls.

News imageThe families from Dores are dressed as different animals, including a badger, zebra, lion, hippo, goat and penguin
A group of friends from Dores turned up as a menagerie of animals, including a badger, penguin and zebra
News imageLooking at the Calian the Caterpillar "cake" in the Garden Stage arena.
A group of friends and family from Aberdeen entered the fancy dress contest as a caterpillar "cake"

James are returning to Bella for the first time since 2013.

Bass player Glennie, who lives about 50 miles away near Ullapool, said the band always enjoyed playing the festival.

"It's just down the road for me, usually for me I have extra travelling to do for a gig. This time it's on my doorstep," he told BBC Scotland News.

Glennie said the Belladrum crowd was always special, adding: "They bring the party to you and all you need to bring is the soundtrack."

News imageJim Glennie is wearing a blue long sleeved top and jeans and is sitting on a platform on the back of a lorry.
Jim Glennie said James always enjoyed playing Belladrum

Glennie said the crowd could expect a "mixture of things" from the late night performance.

"Even for the die-hard James fans there will be a few surprises on the set list," he said.

"We tend to take people on a journey and we might play a new song that we are in the process of working on and recording. We are doing a new album and there are whole lot of new songs."

There is coverage of Belladrum on BBC Alba and iPlayer.