From 6 to 8 of August I attended the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival on behalf of UNISON Scotland Young Members with Graham Smith, Chair of the Scottish Young Members Committee. There was also a group of activists from UNISON Highland, who came armed with tshirts and large quantities of freebies. We came prepared with a tent, a petition on apprentices and, from Jenny Roberts, a survey on potential learning and training opportunities for young people in the Highlands. After pitching the tent we headed for the mobile phone charging stall, which we helped out on, and in return got to use as a base of operations.
Our presence generated a fair amount of interest, and queues for food proved an ideal opportunity to target people to sign our petition and complete the survey. We also asked festivalgoers to say why public service were important to them, and the responses were put on display next to the stall. The weekend turned out to be (perhaps in hindsight unsurprisingly) very tiring with a lively atmosphere on the campsite giving little opportunity for sleep. It was however a productive and enjoyable weekend.