Why this mum-of-three launched Angus music festival – and how Summer’s End is surviving while others fall

Summer’s End festival boss Katrina Hutchinson-O’Neill wants “to lie on the floor, curled up in the foetal position, at least four times a day”.

The mum-of-three says this with a cheerful smile, as if she’s describing her morning workout routine rather than a chronic state of pre-festival stress.

Perhaps that unflappability in the face of adversity is what makes Katrina – also CEO of a specialist recruitment company – such a successful businesswoman. But for her, nothing has come close to the mountainous task of putting together the hotly-anticipated inaugural Summer’s End festival in Brechin, where she lives.

“It’s the toughest thing I’ve ever done,” continues Katrina, 48, who built her global business from her sofa and became the first ever female to top the fastest-growing company list.

“It’s tested me in every way, and my long-suffering husband.”

The three-day, family-friendly Summer’s End festival will be headlined by Sugababes, The Jacksons, Rudimental and Emeli Sande. Susan Boyle, Paris Paloma and Cammy Barnes are also on the bill.

Defying an avalanche of festival cancellations this summer, it’s sold more than 10,000 tickets and will more than double the population of the Angus town for the weekend of August 14 to 16.

The buzz around it is palpable, with local groups organising high street clean-ups and fringe celebrations to help Brechin put its best foot forward.

I sat down with Katrina to find out what motivated her to take on the role of local festival founder, and how Summer’s End is storming ahead while other festivals fold.

Entrepreneur Katrina and her family – husband Gareth, and children Addison, 17, Reid, 16, and Rowan, 13 – moved to Brechin in December 2020, after spending 10 years in staff quarters at Glenalmond College in Perth, where Gareth was deputy head teacher.

Katrina, who hails from Northern Ireland originally, admits she felt out of place and isolated in the first year after moving, until a call-out from a community group looking to take over the cathedral near her house “sucked me into community life”. Motivated by her newfound sense of belonging, Katrina wanted to give back to her local area.

“The vision was very much about ‘What is it we can do for our area of Angus?’,” she explains.

“A music festival just seemed obvious.”

The aim ultimately, she explains, is to use the festival in the grounds of Brechin Castle to “revitalise the high street” in the manner of Bonfest in Kirriemuir, or HebCelt in Stornoway.

“We want to be in a position where there are businesses that exist in shops that are currently vacant on the high street, because they know they can make so much money in that one weekend of the festival that it sustains them for the rest of the year.”

The decision to take the plunge and create Summer’s End came “after one too many wines” at another festival, Linlithgow’s Party at the Palace 2025.

“Having thought about it for about two years, I literally made the decision in August of last year,” she laughs.

“I managed to talk Susan Boyle into agreeing to do it that day. And I drunkenly convinced some other people that it would be good to play this festival that didn’t exist yet.”

Seven weeks later, the land – owned by the Dalhousie family estate – was secured and tickets were on sale.

“Even that was a bit slow for me,” laughs Katrina. “Once I get the bit between my teeth, I’m all go.”

A music lover herself, she attended her first gig as a teenager – Bon Jovi’s Keep The Faith tour – and jumped the fence to get into Phoenix Festival at 18. Recently, she and Addison attended festivals in Madrid and Barcelona. But Katrina struggled to find events in Scotland for the whole family.

So her focus was on creating an event to appeal across generations, grabbing “the T in The Park crowd who are 10 years older now” as well as youngsters.

To help programme Summer’s End, Katrina targeted “iconic” heritage acts that appeared in her children’s playlists.

“I wanted to find that balance between my kids going ‘this is all old people music’ and me saying: ‘I don’t know any of these people!’”

Summer’s End 2026 hasn’t even happened yet, but it’s on track to become the largest-ever first year independent festival in the UK. That’s no mean feat in a year where established UK festivals are dropping like flies. Just this week, three summer music festivals in England were cancelled due to low ticket sales.

Last month, Dundee’s own Discovery Festival fell to the same fate, with the option for tickets to be transferred to Summer’s End. The organisers have since come under fire after several ticketholders who requested refunds instead told The Courier they have been unable to get their money back.

And across Scotland, independent festivals including Black isle Calling, Lochaber Live and WOMAD Glasgow have been cancelled or postponed.

“In the UK, the latest data that we have is it’s about a 15-16% cancellation rate for festivals this year,” explains Katrina, who is a spokesperson for the Scottish Independent Festivals Association.

“But in Scotland, it’s well over 50%, which is appalling. My words to the government recently were that it is an emergency.”

Cost of living, the World Cup and conflict in the Middle East have created an “air of uncertainty” which Katrina believes is preventing prospective festival-goers buying tickets.

But another huge factor, she believes, is BBC Radio 2’s “decision to land an event in Stirling into the first week in August, right at the height of the festival season”.

“It’s been in the second week in September for the full 15 years they’ve run it in England,” she observes.

“They’ve said that they always wanted to try doing it in the summer. But they brought it to Scotland to try that.

“And the problem in Scotland is it’s a very delicately balanced ecosystem for live events.”

Since the original announcement, BBC Radio 2 in the Park has been moved to September, in line with past events in England.

A spokesperson from the BBC told The Courier:

“The BBC is committed to supporting the independent festivals sector and we hope that the festival will make a positive impact on the local community, just as we have done around the UK in previous years, including Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Dundee in 2023.

“Since announcing the festival was coming to Scotland we have engaged extensively with local festival organisers and stakeholders.

“We listened to concerns about the impact of staging it in August, when other events and festivals are taking place, and moved Radio 2 in the Park to new dates in September.”

But Katrina fears “most festivals haven’t really recovered” from that initial impact.

“Everybody was selling really, really well, and then the BBC made their announcement on the February 27,” she explains.

“Sales just fell literally off a vertical cliff.”

Summer’s End didn’t escape that impact, Katrina reveals. The difference is that she and Gareth have fronted up “the lion’s share” of the approximately £2 million required to put on the not-for-profit event. They also quadrupled their marketing budget to ensure word of the festival would reach far and wide. The result? The first year will make a bigger loss than initially projected but they hope to break even in year three.

“When the going gets tough, we go tougher,” Katrina says with a grimace.

“It’s very dangerous to depend on ticket sales to fund an event like this, which is why so many festivals have to cancel.

“We went into this knowing that that was our liability.”

The “one positive to come out of the BBC debacle” for Katrina is the fact it’s brought independent festival owners across Scotland closer together.

In particular, she’s formed a strong relationship with Dundee Discovery Festival boss Liz Hobbs, who she calls “phenomenal”.

“Only 14% of festivals in the UK are run by women. That puts Liz and I in a minority significantly,” she notes.

“I know Liz is planning to bring Discovery back bigger and better in 2027. So we’ve been talking about how both of our events can complement each other, to give Dundee and Angus the best possible summer offering.

“It’s strange that through adversity, sometimes positivity can come.”

This article appeared in the Courier on 19 July 2026