Hogmanany planning for first-time family event
Expansion of winter festival planned by new organisers
Early-evening fireworks and a family-friendly concert will be staged in Edinburgh for the first time on Hogmanay as part of a major expansion of its winter festivals under new organisers.
They will continue for an extra three weeks until Burns Night for the first time as part of an effort to raise the global profile of Edinburgh in the face of mounting competition.
A major new free outdoor event, which is expected to generate spectacular images of the city, will run from New Year’s Day to Burns Night on 25 January. The 25th Hogmanay festivities will get under way at 5pm, four hours earlier than previous years, with a 45-minute music and fireworks show beneath Edinburgh Castle. Pyrotechnics will be seen from across the city, while around 3,500 ticket-holders will be admitted to the Ross Bandstand arena for the new “Bairns Afore” event.
Promoters Underbelly have vowed to “expand and enhance” the Hogmanay festival, including an overhaul of its torchlight procession on 30 December and a “reboot” of its street party, despite a funding cut for the event. But they insist they will not hike ticket prices to pay for the expansion and say pop-up bars on Princes Street and St Andrew Square would be dismantled as normal in early January.
Underbelly, which also organises the annual Pride Festival in London, has revealed it wants to turn the Edinburgh winter event into more of a “carnival”, claiming the city needs to step up efforts to compete with the likes of Sydney, Paris, London and New York.
Directors Charlie Wood and Ed Bartlam, the two London impresarios who have been staging Fringe shows in Edinburgh for 17 years, said they were not content to maintain the “status quo” for Hogmanay in the face of mounting challenges overseas.
Unveiling their first plans for Hogmanay ahead of an official launch next month, they said there was no question of the event being “diminished” and pledged that new sponsors were being brought in to help expand the event in their first year. They also revealed they were planning to use their involvement in other UK events to reduce the costs.
“New sponsors are being brought in to help expand the event”
brian.ferguson@scotsman.com