Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival have revealed the line-up for 2011, with Scottish rock legends Texas and Deacon Blue topping the live bill of the eighth annual event.

This will be the first Scottish festival that Deacon Blue have ever played. Speaking about the festival, Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue said  “We’re very excited to be playing our first Festival in Scotland - ever! If we have played one before it's so lost in the mists of time that we've forgotten. We’re particularly pleased to be playing in The Highlands in the summertime.”

Headliners Deacon Blue and Texas - who have six platinum albums to their credit - will lead an impressive and eclectic line-up of talent over the weekend of August 5th-6th. 

Also announced for this year's Bella are: the Brit-nominated, million selling singer-songwriter Newton Faulkner; Frank Turner, exponent of passionate folk/ punk; fast-rising Scots indie band Admiral Fallow; indie rock quartet Little Comets; up-and-coming alt-folk Dry The River who mix americana, gospel and indie rock; The Webb Sisters, otherwise known as the legendary Leonard Cohen’s backing singers; Australian blues singer-songwriter CW Stoneking; celtic rock fusion band Skerryvore from the island of Tiree; electro-acoustic band Saint Saviour, singer-songwriter Benjamin Francis Lefwich; and kick-ass gypsy punk band Drunken Balordi.

Other confirmations include the top international reggae act Easy Star All Stars, Highland artiste James Mackenzie & The Aquascene,  blues country rockers Cousti, and glam trash punks Diddums. 

Festival organisers have warned regular Bella fans to buy their tickets soon as tickets are already selling at double the rate of last year’s event which sold out well in advance. “We don’t want our long-term supporters to be caught out and left without tickets if they intend coming,” said festival director Joe Gibbs. 

Belladrum 2011 takes place in the Highland surroundings of Belladrum Estate, near Beauly in Inverness-shire. The independent festival has built a reputation for its eclectic line-ups, its offbeat non-musical entertainments and its all-ages approach. The festival won a VisitScotland Thistle Award in 2009 and is a past winner of the Grassroots Festival Award at the UK Festival Awards; the festival industry’s ‘oscars’.