Fireworks, frolics... thank God 2021 is here at last!
THE Sydney Opera House was lit up by a breathtaking fireworks display yesterday as the world began to ring in the New Year.
But while Sydney – and even Wuhan – partied, there were no pyrotechnics in Edinburgh, with the capital’s streets empty of the usual hordes of happy Hogmanay revellers.
While fireworks marked the beginning of 2021 in cities around the world – as billions of people hoped for a return to blessed normality – it was quiet in the UK.
Celebrations across Europe were muted, with little cheering and few fancy firework displays lighting up the skies.
In contrast, in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the pandemic started, crowds of mask-wearing revellers danced only inches apart to live music, while balloons were released into the sky as the clocks chimed midnight. Meanwhile, the streets of Scotland were left eerily deserted last night after Hogmanay bashes were cancelled due to the strict lockdown measures.
Celebrations were kept to socially distanced soirees at home without guests amid police warnings over increased patrols and a crackdown on large gatherings.
A nationwide Level 4 lockdown is now in place, meaning house parties and street bashes are banned.
Edinburgh was left looking like a ghost town after its world-famous Hogmanay display went online this year.
The annual street party, which attracts more than 150,000 people each year over three days of celebrations, had its fireworks finale performed instead by a drone display last night.
The spectacular Torchlight Procession, Christmas market and Big Wheel were also noticeable by their absence. In Kincardineshire, Stonehaven’s fireball ceremony was also cancelled for the first time in its history, except for the war years.
Normally, Hogmanay would mean the town’s High Street is transformed into a river of flames, with around 10,000 spectators turning up to watch the spectacular event. Similarly, London’s fireworks display above the Thames was also cancelled. But Sydney’s famous fireworks over the Harbour Bridge went ahead in a reassuring reminder of life before the pandemic.
But appearances can deceive – the spectacle was cut from 12 minutes to seven, with no crowds enjoying the show from below.
With fireworks on the Thames cancelled, a pre-recorded video of a London Eye light show was posted on social media yesterday afternoon as a meagre compromise.
The underwhelming display – which was accompanied by bleak exhortations to ‘please stay at home’ – drew on ‘glimmering moments of hope from the past 12 months’.
Police chiefs said resources would be focused on large- scale illegal gatherings, amid fears over lockdown-breaching raves promoted over social media.
Deputy Chief Constable Malcolm Graham told BBC Radio Scotland it was ‘likely that we’ll have to break up some parties’, and he confirmed there are ‘additional patrol areas where there’s a risk of travel regulations being breached’.
Elsewhere, Taiwan –which has reported just 800 infections since the pandemic began – permitted a crowd of 40,000 to watch a fireworks event live.
France had deployed 100,000 police and gendarmes to patrol the streets after the 8pm curfew, while Germany’s health minister Jens Spahn said that he expected the country’s ‘quietest New Year’s Eve’ in memory.
‘Glimmering moments of hope’