Preparations underway for annual Amber arts festival in Perthshire Final preparations are underway for this year's Amber festival. The festival is now celebrating its ninth birthday, and has grown every year, attracting audiences from across the world. Founded by folk legend Dougie Maclean, it started as a weekend of concerts in 2005. Maclean said he wanted to show off his beloved Perthshire to visitors. He said: "We started off in Pitlochry Festival Theatre, just doing a weekend and the idea was to get some of my fans to come and visit. For me it was important to kind of try just to show off this beautiful county to the visitors. Perthshire is fascinating, because it's got this real diversity, from the mountains up in Aberfeldy, down to fertile plains of Strathmore. And our beautiful trees at this time of year, when they change colour. So it was important for me to get people to know Perthshire and not just fly up the A9 to Inverness. The festival kicks off on Friday, and more than 300 musicians will perform across 18 venues. It runs until November 3.