The organiser of MacMoray has spoken of his pride after Moray\u2019s biggest music event was nominated for Scotland\u2019s Festival of the Year.<\/p>\n
MacMoray Festival, which takes place annually across two days in Elgin\u2019s Cooper Park, has been longlisted for the honour at the Scottish Live Music Awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Elgin event – organised by Andy Macdonald – is competing against Belladrum and TRNSMT, among others, for the title.<\/p>\n A shortlist will soon be sent to a panel of judges, with awards presented to winners later this month.<\/p>\n For Andy, the nomination is the next step on a \u201cmad, emotional and joyful\u201d journey since he founded the festival – which now welcomes 20,000 visitors across two days – in 2022.<\/p>\n The very first MacMoray was a one-day event that took place with a crowd of 7500, but it has since grown and is already a staple of the Moray calendar.<\/p>\n The beginnings<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cMacMoray started the way most of my mad\/silly ideas do,\u201d Andy said of the festival\u2019s founding.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is with a lot of love, a lot of passion, and absolutely no guarantee it would work!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI believed Moray deserved a proper live music festival, one built for the people, not for profit and by one their own. What I didn\u2019t expect was for it to sell out completely.<\/p>\n \u201cThat first year set the tone for everything that followed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe next year, we took a leap of faith and grew it into a two-day festival with a 10,000-per-day capacity.<\/p>\n \u201cBigger production, bigger challenges, bigger nerves\u2026 but once again, we hit capacity. And we\u2019ve done that every single year since.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe people believed in what I was building.\u201d<\/p>\n In memory of Sarah<\/strong><\/p>\n Tragedy struck 10 days before the very first MacMoray when Andy\u2019s partner, Sarah, passed away.<\/p>\n Sarah suffered a stroke while she was pregnant with her and Andy\u2019s baby. She was just 31.<\/p>\n Andy said that he feels Sarah with him \u201cevery step of the way\u201d.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cI created MacMoray with my first love, Sarah. We dreamed of building something special together: a family festival, a life in Moray, and a future with children.<\/p>\n \u201cThat first festival was one of the hardest things I\u2019ve ever done. Sarah was still in hospital recovering while I tried to hold everything together.<\/p>\n \u201cIn August 2022, she passed away – which I couldn\u2019t believe.<\/p>\n \u201cLosing her changed everything.<\/p>\n \u201cThe journey since has been incredibly difficult… but life also found a way to bring love back into my world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI met Angela, along with her two amazing daughters Abbie and Ella, who brought joy and light back when I needed it most. Together, we welcomed our daughter Macie, who is now 15 months old and the absolute centre of my world.<\/p>\n \u201cI know, without any doubt, that Sarah is still part of MacMoray. I feel her with me every step of the way, and I know she\u2019d be incredibly proud of what it has become.\u201d<\/p>\n We thought it was the end\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n Last summer, Andy admits he was \u201cexhausted\u201d and \u201cready to walk away\u201d from MacMoray – but was inspired to continue by the event\u2019s fans.<\/p>\n \u201cMacMoray Easter 2025 was meant to be the end,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI was exhausted, emotionally drained, and ready to walk away.<\/p>\n \u201cBut then something extraordinary happened. The fans, the council, the people of Moray, and my incredible events team stepped up in a way I\u2019ll never forget.<\/p>\n \u201cThe \u201cNo Andy, No Party\u201d movement reminded me just how much this festival means to people\u2026 and together, we turned it around and secured MacMoray\u2019s future.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I thought was the end of a chapter, was just the beginning.<\/p>\n \u201cThis journey has been mad, emotional, exhausting and joyful all at once. And none of it would exist without the MacMorians… the fans who show up, rain or shine, year after year, and remind me why we do this.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m in such a happy place now. I have got absolutely everything I need in life. Whether I win the award or not… I\u2019m already a winner!<\/p>\n \u201cMacMoray is here to stay, MacMoray will continue to get better and I cannot wait to see what the future holds.\u201d<\/p>\n A festival for the community<\/strong><\/p>\n Andy has always insisted that MacMoray is a festival for the fans – and has worked to keep prices down.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cFrom day one, I\u2019ve been absolutely determined to keep MacMoray affordable.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFestivals shouldn\u2019t be priced out of reach for families and young people.<\/p>\n \u201cMacMoray has never been about squeezing every penny out of people… it\u2019s about giving them something they feel proud to be part of.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of my proudest moments was the Summer Special MacMoray. It was a one-off thank-you to the fans… a huge, high-budget lineup, bigger than anything we\u2019d done before. And despite the cost, we didn\u2019t raise ticket prices. It was our way of saying thank you for believing in us.\u201d<\/p>\n Andy donated \u00a3100k of free tickets provided to low-income families ahead of Easter MacMoray in 2024, and 4000 tickets were provided for free in 2025. In addition, 1500 tickets were given free-of-charge to people living around Cooper Park.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI don\u2019t actually like to boast about exactly what I have done as I don\u2019t do it to tick boxes or look good. I do it because I want to, and when I can\u2026 I do!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSomething a lot of people don\u2019t realise is that I don\u2019t take a wage from MacMoray. I\u2019m fortunate enough to earn a good living through my other businesses, so every decision I make with MacMoray is about sustainability, fairness, and community not personal gain.<\/p>\n \u201cMacMoray has generated millions of pounds for the local economy, bringing people from all over Scotland and beyond. Seeing Moray showcased in such a positive way has been one of the most rewarding parts of the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n The nomination<\/strong><\/p>\n On hearing of the award nomination, Andy said he \u201cimmediately\u201d poured himself a dram and did a family toast.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt really greatful and honoured,\u201d he said. \u201cI would love to say best of luck to the rest of the competition\u2026 But I wouldn\u2019t mean it!<\/p>\n \u201cI believe that our community and our festival deserve to do well.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve come along way together and we are the most popular event in the UK based on customer interaction and popularity so it would be great for our community and our beautiful county to be recognised on the national scale.\u201d<\/p>\n You can vote for MacMoray by visiting scottishlivemusicawards.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.grampianonline.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The organiser of MacMoray has spoken of his pride after Moray\u2019s biggest music event was nominated for Scotland\u2019s Festival of the Year. MacMoray Festival, which takes place annually across two days in Elgin\u2019s Cooper Park, has been longlisted for the honour at the Scottish Live Music Awards. MacMoray Festival organiser Andy Macdonald. Picture: Daniel Forsyth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2206048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[22035,22672,425773],"class_list":["post-2206047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-community","tag-latest-news","tag-update-me"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/MacMoray-Festival-organiser-Andy-Macdonalds-pride-at-Elgin-events-Scottish.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2206047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2206047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2206047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2206049,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2206047\/revisions\/2206049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2206048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2206047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2206047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2206047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"MacMoray](\"https:\/\/www.grampianonline.co.uk\/_media\/img\/BOYIXJUCLZR5T23UOMP4.jpg\")
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.grampianonline.co.uk\/_media\/img\/3BA2PGMZBK78XZ742D7X.jpg\")
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.grampianonline.co.uk\/_media\/img\/8W8UYOUZGSTLCJ4EMOFJ.jpg\")
![\"Sarah's](\"https:\/\/www.grampianonline.co.uk\/_media\/img\/MFO1V78C1EL3UNKM1FTL.jpg\")
![\"Andy](\"https:\/\/www.grampianonline.co.uk\/_media\/img\/SENT5YBCCXOEEQ2BEI77.jpg\")
![\"Andy](\"https:\/\/www.grampianonline.co.uk\/_media\/img\/2VXTCZCKNFTVLCC8C5CS.jpg\")
![\"Andy](\"https:\/\/www.grampianonline.co.uk\/_media\/img\/TYWS0R2C2ESPUU0RWT2U.jpg\")
![\"MacMoray](\"https:\/\/www.grampianonline.co.uk\/_media\/img\/8EF9FKIJLR1QMS7URX2F.jpg\")
![\"MacMoray](\"https:\/\/www.grampianonline.co.uk\/_media\/img\/WXJYUTISXXY746E69LFR.jpg\")
Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here<\/b><\/a> to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.<\/i><\/h6>\n