Edinburgh Hogmanay fireworks and street party could be axed
Edinburgh could ditch its famous Hogmanay fireworks and street party under a radical rethink for its winter festivals.
Christmas and New Year events are set to be expanded across the city under an overhaul aimed at reducing their impact on the environment, clamping down on drinking and overcrowding at pop-up markets, and doing more to support local businesses, producers and performers.
The city council has suggested drone displays and light shows could be staged instead of fireworks under a drive to cut the carbon footprint of the long-running winter festivals.
Signature events like the torchlight procession and street party could be ditched after nearly 30 years if organisers come up with “worldclass” alternative ideas which maintain the global profile of the city’s New Year celebrations, which are still planned to have a “significant midnight moment”.
However, the city council insists it wants Edinburgh to remain “the home of Hogmanay” by staging live music, street theatre and light shows as far from the city centre as Leith and Granton.
It has also suggested the three-day New Year festival – which up to £810,000 will be available for – could run for much longer, with indoor events staged in theatres and concert venues.
The events industry is being challenged to rethink Christmas and New Year events to ensure they are “unique to Edinburgh” and the whole city
benefits from them.
The city wants to overhaul its Christmas festival by reducing its impact on Princes Street Gardens. Although the use of the historic park has not been ruled out, potential applicants to run the event are being warned their plans must make “minimal” use of green space and that proposals to make more use of “hard-standing” areas will be favoured.
The city council has suggested the main Christmas
events and attractions could be extended to Festival Square, St Andrew Square, the Grassmarket, East Market Street, the High Street and Parliament Square to cut their environmental impact, avoid overcrowding problems, and spread the economic benefits of the festival, which is expected to run for up to six weeks.
Applicants are also being urged to focus on making the celebrations “family friendly”, introduce alcohol-free times
or areas at the main festival sites, give priority to existing and new local businesses and creative workers, and extend the Christmas festival out of the city centre, including to local town centres.
The city council has begun a search for new organisers for the two events – estimated to have been worth £158 million for the economy in recent years – who are expected to be appointed by June.
Detailed briefs for the Christmas
and Hogmanay festivals, for contracts to run them for at least the next three years, have been published after an opinion poll found public backing for the events to continue, but concerns were raised about their environmental impact, the number of stalls selling alcohol, the cost of tickets for events and attractions, and overcrowding in the city centre at peak periods.