The Outsider is unlike any other festival. So says promoter Pete Irvine of Unique Events, who hopes it will take the idea of the music festival forward.

It has certainly made an excellent start. There might have been top-class headliners such as K T Tunstall and Crowded House over the weekend, but music was just one part of the festivities.

The setting of the Rothiemurchus Estate near Aviemore, always popular for outdoor activities, was used over the weekend for organised walks, bike runs and events to highlight environmental issues. The festival's green credentials were good, with revellers given easy options to choose public transport and recycle every part of their organic and Fairtrade food and drink intake. Not one scrap of litter could be seen. There were also environmental debates and cinema presentations on green issues. Like any wet festival, however, the land was churned into a sea of mud, and it's only once the last truck has left that the potential to make this an annual event can be decided.

The music was undoubtedly the main attraction for most. As impressive as each night's headliners were, the weekend's stand-outs were Americana wunderkind Willy Mason on Saturday; and on Sunday the return of Justin Currie, with a watertight band (handy here) and a set of promising new material as well as Del Amitri favourites.

For those who would rather have a laugh after a hard day's mountain-biking, Karen Dunbar, Craig Hill and James Campbell, with his comedy for kids, were among the stand-ups in The Bothy.

The festival had capacity for just 10,000 a day, and 9000 braved each, despite the mudbath. The feeling was of being at the beginning of something. Keeping it this size may be difficult.