Extra bus services are being organised to connect the Black Isle Show and Belladrum Music Festival with Inverness, in the hope of reducing traffic jams.
Stagecoach North Scotland has announced that a dedicated service will connect the city centre to the show on Thursday August 3.
Service 28X will operate only on August 3 between Inverness bus station and the showground in Muir of Ord. It will run in addition to service 28 connecting Inverness to Beauly, Muir of Ord and Dingwall.
The Black Isle Show marks its 180th anniversary this year and is the North’s biggest farming event.
“BellaBus”, service 928, returns from August 3-6 with an enhanced timetable providing more connections to the festival as well as return journeys to Inverness for those who are not camping on site.
The return journeys to Inverness operate every 30 minutes from 11pm until 1.30am from Thursday to Saturday, with the last bus departing the festival at 2.15am.
Service 928A which connects Belladrum to the Black Isle Show will also return this year. This allows festival-goers to pitch their tents on Thursday before heading to the show for the day ahead of returning to the festival for opening entertainment at Belladrum on the Thursday evening.
Mark Whitelocks, managing director for Stagecoach North Scotland said: “We are proud to be supporting both the Black Isle Show and Belladrum with additional buses from Inverness this year.
“It is usually a busy day on the roads as the events fall on the same day, but we hope with the shuttles we have for both events, we’ll be able to free up road space with less cars on the road.
Joe Gibbs, festival founder of Belladrum added: “We really value the bus service run by Stagecoach between Inverness and the festival.
“The more people who use the bus, the greener our event and the less traffic there is on the roads.
“We are delighted our audience can park at Bella on the Thursday and then take the bus to and from the Black Isle Showground to enjoy that event as well.”
Rod Mackenzie, secretary of The Black Isle Show, said: “This allows patrons of both events the chance to leave their vehicles parked up which has many positive outcomes.”
