 The origin of the festival's name is unclear, but in Gaelic ‘knock’ (Cnoc) means a hill and ‘gorroch’ has a variety of meanings.The featured artists originate from Celtic, world and roots music genre and the festival has been held in various other locations as the Forest of Ae near Dumfries, and Talnotry near Newton Stewart.The festival now takes place in the Dumfries and Galloway hills, in a natural greenfield amphitheatre.