The Scottish Thistle Awards recognise and celebrate excellence in Scottish Tourism. Created by VisitScotland in 1992, the Scottish Thistle Awards have become an important event on the tourism calendar and the media attention it generates helps VisitScotland and the sponsors raise the profile of the tourism industry. Our Perthshire Amber Festival is is just one of many 'businesses' within Scottish Tourism as well as being an important part of Scotland's musical calendar.

For the first time, the Scottish Thistle Awards are asking you, the customers, to tell them about your Perfect Day in Scotland...to nominate the business and activity that made your visit to Scotland perfect. If you've enjoyed your visit to the Perthshire Amber Festival why not choose your favorite day and nominate? Click here

Here is a selection of comments from audience and musicians from near and far!

"Thank you to all the Macleans for a wonderful week last week we loved every minute of the concerts we went to, especially Edradour. I hope the Shelter Blanket turned out well, what a brilliant way of connecting people to the festival.
We had a truly memorable holiday and will be back next year.
THANK YOU SO MUCH" (Mel McKnight and Martin French, USA)

What a wonderful Perthshire Amber! I was privileged to be part of it & had some great feedback on the photography. Well done on a magnificent effort in Homecoming year. The final concert in Perth was a fitting end to it all. Fantastic!" (Andy Hall - Photographer, Scotland)

"Thank you for giving me the opportunity to sing at the Open Mic at the Perthshire Amber Festival... it was a pleasure to participate! The Guitar workshop was very useful.  It will improve and change the way I play and write greatly. I am also very grateful for the precious time you took to write the chord shapes down for me." (Elena Piras - Open Mic and Workshop participant, London)

Due to the great response to the idea, we are very pleased to announce the lauch of "Perthshire Amber Live"!

For a one off (single) payment of £18.00 (approx $30.00) you will get access to live, real time, multi camera, video streams of concerts by the likes of Dougie MacLean, Eddi Reader, Malinky and Eliza Lynn as well as the Dougie MacLean & Friends extravaganza. All concerts will also be available on demand after the fact along with other Special Venue Concerts (including The Crannog), interviews and special performances by festival performers, and footage of lots of the other things that are going on.

All this will be available for a month after the festival.

Check out www.live.perthshireamber.com where you can find out more, check your internet speed and test if you will be able to access the videos.

10th October 2009

Perth Concert Hall  online sales are up and running again and seats are fast filing now for the Perthisre Amber 09's very special final night. To book click here

This concert is best introduced by Dougie MacLean himself…. “We are delighted with this year’s festival line-up for what looks to be the biggest and best Perthshire Amber yet. We have more concerts at more venues with more musicians involved than in previous years. Our biggest step is that we are going to hold a major concert in Perth for the first time.

Monday 5th October 2009.

Because of the variety of venues and activities during the Perthshire Amber Festival info. on how and where to get your tickets is incredibly important. Basic information is displayed on the Tickets page of our online store but here I will try to update you all with any extra facts and problems.

The Caledonia Concert- The Perth Concert Hall online bookings has been unavailable for a week now as they are doing essential maintenance. You can book tickets for the Caledonia Concert (Sunday November 8th 7pm in the Perth Concert Hall) by phone on +44 (0)1738 621 031 or at Ticketmaster  Get your tickets early as this concert is likely to sell out in advance!

Workshops, Walks, Talks Tickets- Because of the expense of posting etc we are not posting out tickets. Any online or phone orders will be added to our 'masterlist' in preparation for the festival. If tou are ordering online you can print out your confirmation as proof of purchase and we will keep receipts for anyone who orders by phone to collect at the festival if they choose.

SongBus- We will be getting in touch with everyone who orders tickets for the SongBus by email to determine packed lunch preferences! This email will include a ticket that can be printed as receipt/payment.

Though quite a few concerts (The Opening Concert, Crannog Concert, Castle Menzies, Dunkeld Cathedral, Edradour Fiddle Concert)  have sold out there could be tickets available closer to the date as we determine how many seats will be occupied by sound system etc. We are compiling a 'reserve list' of 6 for each sold out concert..just in case (apart from the Crannog Concert where there is no sound system!). If you would like to be added to any of these lists please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it stating which concert you would like to be on the reserve list for (with your name, number of tickets and a telephone number where we can easily reach you). Once the reserve list is full that fact will be added to this news page.

We are really thrilled with the range of this years (very relevant) Guided Walks throughout Perthshire which are now all organised and able to be booked into.

They range from a leisurely and informative nature walk, to an archaeological walk with expert Nick Dixon, to historical delvings into General Wade's Bridges and into Medieval Perth. There's a musical walk with Pete Clark exploring the places that inspired Niel Gow, the father of Scottish Fiddle and there's a more strenuous (but rewarding) hike to the summit of Ben Vrackie! Also added is a guided walk around the Explorer's Garden which lies very close to festival's home, Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

The walks are likely to fill up this year so book early if you can. For full details click here

3rd August 2009

Tickets sales for the festival are already over 40% with some concerts and events sold out or very close to sell-out, including our opening concert at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, the Crannog Concert, Castle Menzies, Dunkeld Cathedral, the Fiddle Concert at Edradour Distillery. This compares with 32% of tickets sold at the end of July in 2008.

In terms of number of tickets sold for the 10 day event we are 60% up on number of tickets sold on the same date (July 31st) in 2008. There are an increased number of tickets available due to the addition of the Perth Concert Hall as a venue (extra 1200 seats).  So...get your tickets online or by phone as soon as you can!