Various venues, EdinburghMark Ronson, Eddi Reader, Marc Almond and Dick and Dom battle with giant polar bears and splashing swimmers as the city celebrates the new year
‘It’s the greatest party in the world,” declares Edinburgh’s Lord Provost, Frank Ross, opening the three-day Hogmanay festival on 30 December. He may well be right. Thousands of people pour into the city from all over the world to take part in the huge variety of events that mark the new year festival.
Christmas celebrations were banned in
Scotland between 1640 and 1712, and the day itself was not made a public holiday until 1958 – but new year festivities are deep in the nation’s DNA.
This year’s Hogmanay, however, begins under a shadow. Local residents whose homes are inside the central area cordoned off for the huge street party complained that their freedom to host celebrations in their own homes was being compromised. Others muttered about the vast, “tacky” Christmas market that turned Princes Street Gardens into an “end of the pier show”, in a debate framed as the battle for the soul of Edinburgh.