“This is where you try out your new hip.” Saturday evening and on the main stage at Radio 2 in the Park, just below Stirling Castle, Vernon Kay is on the decks and he’s just cued up N-Trance’s dance anthem Set You Free (yes, you do know it. It was a number two hit in 1995 in the UK). In front of me there are a group of 40 and 50somethings galvanised into throwing some shapes as soon as it starts. Big box, little box, cardboard box. They keep it up for 30 seconds. Then pause for a break. Well, none of us are getting any younger.
Kay is keeping us entertained before the main act of the evening, Chaka Khan. Already today we’ve had Texas, Lulu, ABC, Emeli Sande and The Script appearing on the main stage, whilst over at the DJ stage various Radio 2 DJs have been entertaining a more select but at times rowdier crowd in a variety of ways - DJ Spoony weaving snatches of Adele and Amy Winehouse into proper dance beats; Rylan leading everyone through the moves that accompany Macarena. On Sunday Jeremy Vine will appear on the DJ stage dressed in an inflatable Rocket Man suit. After months of lead-up when you couldn't go a single link on Radio 2 without a mention of Stirling - it's possible that the city hasn't been so much in the public eye since Robert the Bruce was hanging around Bannockburn - the blessed thing is now upon us. And from my seat in the City Park it seems a lot of fun.
It’s a bring-your-own chair event and the six of us - family members and friends, including my two Radio 2 obsessed sisters - are sitting towards the back. We venture forward to join the throng in front of the stage when we are so minded. (NB, for Lulu, ABC and Chaka. We stay where we are for The Script - well, I saw them support Take That not so long ago).
Read more
- Review: Simple Minds, Radio 2 in the Park, Stirling, Sept 13, 2026
- Chaka Khan gets Scotland on its feet at our Camp Chair Fest
Half the time we’re just chatting about this and that and how good Lulu's hair is, and then indulging in a spot of people-watching. It’s all sparkly tops, Camo raincoats and Wellington Boots. Turns out Cone Hats now seem to be a thing in Scotland. It’s possible that Radio 1’s Big Weekend is a little bigger, but sitting here it is clear that Radio 2 in the Park is a massive event and proof, if needed, that even in the age of streaming radio still has a huge appeal. Enough, at least, for people to pay 50 quid for a Radio 2 hoodie. (admittedly it did get a bit chilly around tea time).
I guess you could, if you chose to, find something to moan about - a fiver for a croissant is frankly ludicrous, then there’s the inevitable mud and you might even have a pop at the musical line-up if you are so inclined (NB Chaka Khan sounded pretty impressive up close and personal, for all the grumbling online) - but spending all day Saturday at City Park the thing that most strikes me about Radio 2 in the Park is how well organised the event is, and how much fun the DJs seem to be having (it’s clearly a bit of a school trip for them).
It’s impossible to ignore the Radio 2ness of the day, but actually it’s nowhere near as overpowering within the park as it is if you’re listening along on the radio. Tuning into the station on Sunday it does all feel a little bit over the top at times, though it is fun to hear Simple Minds’ front man Jim Kerr reminisce to Owain Wyn Evans about the early days of the band playing pub gigs nearby in Alva, Doune and Bridge of Allan (which he pronounces “Brigawlan” during the gig. Is that a thing?).
And hearing voices from all over the UK in City Park on Saturday I suspect that Stirling will have benefited from an impressive uptick in visitors. In 2024 Preston saw a £5m injection into the local economy over the Radio 2 in the Park weekend. Hopefully Stirling will have seen something similar. In short, this weekend is proof that the BBC can still get some things right whatever its many critics might say.
Over on Radio 4 on Sunday morning the latest episode of The Runion sees Kirsty Wark bring together some of the cast and crew of Bill Forsyth’s comedy classics Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero, to recall the making of both. The inestimable Clare Grogan is one of them.
She reveals that when Forsyth came to her work wanting to cast her in Gregory’s Girl he had to ask his mate to ask for her phone number. “Absolutely not. My mother has warned me about people like you,” she replied.
Fortunately, she was convinced to change her mind.
Denis Lawson, meanwhile, tells a story about waiting for a lift at home in Crieff to take him to the set of Local Hero up north. John Gordon Sinclair and Peter Capaldi turn up in said lift and are invited in.
“My mum made them a cup of tea and put some biscuits on a plate,” Lawson recalls. “And Capaldi said to John Gordon SInclair, ‘Jaffa cakes and Blue Ribands on the same plate? These people have got money.’”
Listen Out For: Archive on 4: Aberdeen - After the Black Goldrush, Radio 4, Saturday, September 19, 8pm
Now that he’s out of Westminster is Michael Gove going to try to do a Portillo? He’s back on Radio 4 on Saturday night to present a programme on how Aberdeen became the oil capital of Europe. Great Car Journeys of the World is surely only a commission away.
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