Feeder top a fantastic bill of music on Friday at Tartan Heart

The Tartan Heart festival in Inverness-shire sold out in advance for the second year running this year with 13,000 people attending each day, 2,000 of which were children under 12.

Belladrum, or Bella as it is affectionately known to its many loyal fans, really does seem to get better and better every year, its family friendly atmosphere no longer a well kept secret and more of a legend in festie-goer circles these days.

The festival is in a truly beautiful location; a couple of miles out of Beauly, which in turn is a little north-west of Inverness.

When we arrived on the Thursday night the campervan site (which had been moved to where the car park has been in previous years) was already pretty much full, and the car park and campsites were pretty full too. The ceilidh was in full swing with rhythmnreel ensuring that the party started early for thousands of ticket holders.

Despite the capacity crowd and the tightly packed campsites, the traditional relaxed Bella atmosphere was still very much in evidence. The good weather may have contributed, but even so, the usual bottlenecks in the usual places didn't seem so apparent this year. We didn't see any trouble and even the campsites seemed quieter than in previous years.

Areas such as the Heilan Fields and the Bella Temple provide a real haven in what is already a chilled and relaxed festival; the Celtic Wishing tree in the Heilan Fields proved to be very popular with hundreds of people making wishes all weekend, covering hopes and dreams from the heartfelt and heartbreaking to the slightly bizarre ('I wish my brother would eat cheese', 'I wish my mum wood [sic] stop tripping me over' and 'I wish I was a cow').

So after a morning spent chillin' in the campsite and the Hielan Fields, the first band of the weekend for us was Orkestra del Sol, which has graduated to the main stage this year with their ever popular brand of however it is you would describe what it is they do. As their set opened the rain was pouring down but no one seemed to care as they bounced about to the great big sousaphone sounds. Top marks to the Del Sol boys n gals too for my fave flyer ever: top trumps of the band - collect 'em all fans, they may be worth something some day.

Twin Atlantic is another Bella mainstay band that has worked its way up to the main stage and this year by way of thanks they reportedly smashed a £900 guitar and chucked it into the crowd to the very great excitement of a bunch of teenagers that I met later that night.

The Vatersay Boys are mainstays of the Scottish festie circuit in general - and everyone I meet seems to have a naked Vatersay boy story of their own. This year is no exception and involved the sauna in the Heilan Fields. They played a foot stomping set covering The Gael from The Last of the Mohicans and The Pogues' Sally Maclennan and we were lovin' the bouys with Vatersay painted on 'em - another top class marketing ploy.

The Wailers were by all accounts amazing, and then it was off to the packed out Hothouse Stage to catch the Levellers, who can always be relied upon to provide a stomping set of "noisy music" as bassist Jez described it in the Q&A session in the Verb Garden earlier that day. And they didn't disappoint, providing a pretty much full on punk set list encompassing a few new songs and a good selection of the classics such as One Way, Dirty Davey, Cholera Well, A Life Less Ordinary, World Freak Show, Beautiful Day and Carry Me. They also revised The Devil Went Down To Georgia, which I haven't seen them play for a few years now and which was undoubtedly my kids' best bit.

Next up was Feeder; despite the very popular special guest appearance of KT Tunstall there was never any doubt that the boys from Wales were the main attraction for me and my boys that night. We ran from the Hothouse stage at the end of the Levellers' set just in time to catch Buck Rogers, Just The Way I'm Feeling and some new stuff from the latest album Renegades. The Garden Stage was packed and everyone there was jumping and singing their hearts out in what was probably one of the best responses to a headline act ever at Bella.

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