Edinburgh today announces the programme for its 25th Hogmanay festival. Including the family friendly Bairns Afore and a new look ceilidh at the foot of Edinburgh Castle, Hogmanay 2018 will feature an extended fireworks display and a revamped and animated Street Party that keeps the celebration going all evening.
The three-day festival opens on 30 December 2017 with the stunning traditional Torchlight Procession which this year blazes a new path seeing the river of light weave its way through the historic heart of the city around Holyrood Palace and the Scottish Parliament before culminating in a stunning visual moment in Holyrood Park: #ScotWord project.
On 31 December, local and visiting families have the opportunity to celebrate New Year together in West Princes Street Gardens at Bairns Afore. The family friendly celebration includes an hour of entertainment and culminates in its very own ‘midnight’ fireworks moment at 6pm, allowing families to take their children home to bed before the late night reveling gets underway.
Councillor Donald Wilson, Culture and Communities Convener for the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “This year Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrates its 25th birthday so it’s fitting that it will be the biggest party ever staged in Scotland’s great capital city. The fireworks display is being extended with new events like Bairns Afore and Message from the Skies plus favourites such as the Torchlight Procession and Loony Dook. There will be something for everyone not just to see but to take part in. Come along and experience what Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is really about!”
Edinburgh’s Hogmanay renews its partnership with OneCity Trust, donating 50 pence from every ticket sold for the Torchlight Procession to the Trust as the Torchlight Procession Charity Partner for 2017. Edinburgh’s Hogmanay will also make 300 free tickets for Bairns Afore available to the Trust to maximize the opportunity for young people around Edinburgh to get involved and celebrate Hogmanay. The OneCity Trust is dedicated to fighting inequality and exclusion in Edinburgh.
The Lord Provost, Councillor Frank Ross, on behalf of the One City Trust said: “I’m delighted that Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is partnering with One City Trust with money from Torchlight Procession tickets going to the charity and with 300 tickets being donated via One City Trust to the young people of Edinburgh.
“Scotland’s great Capital has much to be proud of, however there are many people who do not have access to the privileges living in Edinburgh brings and modest sums of money can bring about huge changes to their lives. One City Trust’s important community projects support those people affected by social exclusion whether it is homelessness, prejudice or poverty.”
Edinburgh’s Street Party is the only night long celebration that makes that midnight moment last with a 6 hour street party bringing the spirit of carnival and animating the length and breadth of the Princes Street arena in a hugely revamped programme for one of the world’s great parties. From the moment the doors open at 7pm, untill after the midnight bells have fallen silent, bands and DJs on stages, street performers and dancers, acrobats, disco divas and fire eaters will all combine to make it the party of a lifetime. Every great party needs a host and we’re delighted that the 2018 Street Party will be hosted by Sanjeev Kohli (Still Game, BBC).
Sanjeev Kohli said: “There’s only really one place to be at Hogmanay and that’s Princes Street in Edinburgh. And this is going to be MASSIVE. I’ll be on hand to make sure everyone is partying as hard as they can.”
Edinburgh’s Hogmanay festival doesn’t stop when the bells finish ringing. On Monday 1 January 2018, the brave, the foolhardy and the generous dive into the chilly Firth of Forth for the Loony Dook, raising money for a huge range of charities in the process.
As dusk falls on 1 January, Edinburgh, the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature, celebrates its rich literary heritage and that of Scotland with projections across buildings and landmarks across the city. In a nod to Robert Burns’s poem Sketch New Year’s Day, Message from the Skies sees literary star Val McDermid join with dramaturg, Philip Howard of Pearlfisher, Edinburgh based projection company Double Take Projections and some of Scotland’s best soundscape artists to create and write a new short story which will lead audiences on a trail around Edinburgh. Message from the Skies runs until 25 January 2018 in a celebration of the Bard’s day too.
Charlie Wood and Ed Bartlam, directors of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, said: “We are humbled and thrilled to be delivering a new programme for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay in 2018. Edinburgh can claim to be the home of New Year festivals and we will work hard to ensure that the programme delivers something fresh and exciting every year to keep residents, UK visitors and international tourists flocking to this world famous Festival City through the winter months.
“We’re proud to be working with some very talented people on Hogmanay including one of Scotland’s finest writers Val McDermid, executive producer Martin Green and our Street Party director Struan Leslie, our young ambassador Nina Nesbitt, and the very entertaining Hogmanay Host Sanjeev Kohli as well as organisations including the Edinburgh International Book Festival, OneCity Trust, Young Scot and our partners City of Edinburgh Council, the Scottish Government, EventScotland and Creative Scotland.
Edinburgh’s Hogmanay 2018 is produced on behalf of the City of Edinburgh Council, with support from the Scottish Government through the Edinburgh Festival’s Expo Fund, EventScotland International Events Programme and Scotland’s Winter Festivals Fund and the Year of Young People 2018 Events fund.
Tickets are on sale now: https://www.edinburghshogmanay.com/
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