The mercury was nudging past 30C on Saturday as tens of thousands of fans turned out to enjoy the second day of Scotland’s largest music festival. A collective sigh of relief rolled through Glasgow Green each time a delicate breeze offered some respite from one of the hottest ever days of TRNSMT.
I wait in the queue to fill up my water bottle, watching a sea of ruffled micro mini skirts and knee-high cowboy boots trudge across the thirsty grass, heading to and from the stages. The lineup today appears to have drawn a more seasoned crowd. When it’s my turn, I switch on the tap to find a stream of hot water cascading into my little plastic bottle. The toilet queues are not too bad, but in this heat, any portable loo is intolerable.
I’m told Friday had drawn the typical TRNSMT teens, baby-faced and full of booze gulped down in hidden corners of the Merchant City before entering. But today, the little rascals seem few and far between. Between sets, clusters of festivalgoers compete over spots to languish in the shade and wait for another cooling gust to brush past. The average age is surprisingly higher than I expected. And it is simply too hot to binge drink anything but water, unless you want to be wheeled out on a stretcher.
I spot more Irish tricolours than saltires wrapped like capes around revellers. The lineup today is heavy on the Celtic rock with Brogeal playing the King Tut’s Stage and Fontaines D.C. taking the penultimate slot on the Main Stage ahead of Biffy Clyro. Inhaler, the Irish band fronted by Bono’s son Elijah Hewson also played the Main Stage in the afternoon.
Of all the acts playing today, I’m most excited for Fontaines D.C. It is remarkable to be able to see them a week after they played their biggest-ever headline show at Finsbury Park in London alongside Irish rap trio Kneecap and Australian punk band Amyl and the Sniffers. Kneecap were supposed to play TRNSMT on Friday but was dropped from the lineup in May amid an ongoing police investigation into one of its members.
Fontaines D.C. are undoubtedly the biggest band of a generation. That many people had come to the festival today just to see them was clear. Everywhere you looked, there was a nod to the award-winning band, from Romance heart tops to the coveted football jersey that guitarist Carlos O’Connell designed in collaboration with Bohemian FC. When they finally take the stage on Saturday evening, the band’s unwavering solidarity with Palestine is put on full display. Chants of ‘Free Palestine’ echo throughout the crowd during quiet moments in their set.
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As time goes on, I am more and more surprised by the mood. Pleasantly so. The last time I was at TRNSMT, in 2023, it seemed like every time I turned around there was a teenager being chased through the park by a handful of hi-vis clad police. I lasted about half an hour before the charged air left me on the precipice of a panic attack, and I retreated to my nearby flat to listen to the rest of The 1975’s set. But if this is the new tone of the festival, I think I would definitely come back again.
Later, I discovered that two teenage boys, aged 16 and 17, were rushed to the hospital after becoming unwell at the festival. In a separate incident outside the main gate near Glasgow High Court, another teenage boy, 15, was treated by medics after being attacked. So not completely without incident, but a welcome change from the volume of arrests witnessed in years past. Overall, police said there were just four arrests on Saturday. Offences included breach of the peace, possession of a knife, drug offence and breaching curfew.
Glasgow is lucky to have a huge city festival like TRNSMT. With ticket prices to concerts soaring higher each year, festivals offer people the chance to see a variety of new and established acts for a decent price. As a UNESCO City of Music, it was nice to know that the festival is not just for the youth anymore. This year proved that millennials and beyond can find their place at the festival.
