Ticket sales for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations have soared around the world despite last year’s major events falling victim to bad weather.
Overseas bookings for the main festivities are said to be up about around 10 per cent compared to this time last year after organisers decided to bring the city’s new year programme back in expanded form rather than scale it back in the wake of widespread cancellations last December.
Early bird tickets were put on sale in May as part of efforts to revive the festival, which is said to have been worth almost £50 million for the city’s economy in recent years.
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Discounted tickets for EH postcode holders are said to be on the verge of selling out for the five-hour street party.
Unique Events and Assembly Festival, who have a joint contract with the city council worth more than £810,000 a year to produce the new year festival, say everything possible is being done to ensure Edinburgh’s festivities are more weather proof.
More indoor events will be staged in indoor venues, while more robust staging and new lighting effects will be introduced above Edinburgh Castle to reduce the reliance on fireworks for the city’s “midnight moment” display.
However they have warned that the main outdoor events on Hogmanay - which are expected to attract more than 50,000 revellers this year - are still reliant on a 36-hour weather window to build the arena in the city centre before the street party gets underway.
Three days of outdoor events were wiped out last year, including the opening night torchlight procession through the city centre on December 29, a Night Afore Disco Party in Princes Street Gardens on December 30, and the street party and Concert in the Gardens on Hogmanay.
However the outdoor events are all due to return in similar form this year, with 15,000 revellers expected to create a river of fire through the historic heart of the city at the torchlight procession, Peat & Diesel headlining a Night Afore Concert in Princes Street Gardens, 2manydjs, Hayley Zalassi, Valtos and The Poozies lined up for the Hogmanay street party, and Lucia & The Best Boys, Hamish Hawk and Wet Leg performing at the Concert in the Gardens.
Some of the fastest selling events include the torchlight procession on December 29, an intimate Assembly Rooms concert with Glasvegas and the Mull Historical Society, a candlelight Lau concert in St Giles' Cathedral and a New Year's Day event in Portobello Town Hall featuring former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Garbage singer Shirley Manson, Teenage Fanclub frontman Norman Blake and Edinburgh Makar Michael Pedersen.
Edinburgh has been staging official Hogmanay celebrations, including a party on Princes Street, a Concert in the Gardens and a fireworks display above the castle, for more than 30 years.
The main events on Hogmanay were called off on the night twice in the space of four years in the 2000s, however last year’s disruption was by far the most severe in the history of the celebrations.
Although the wind speeds had dropped significantly by late evening on Hogmanay, the plug was pulled by late afternoon on December 30 due to safety concerns over the installation of key infrastructure on and around Princes Street, including stages and safety barriers.
Unique Events director Al Thomson said: “Our core events were obviously all impacted by the extreme weather we had last year.
“We went from four days of the best weather I can remember over Hogmanay the year before to some of the worst we had ever experienced.
“There’s only so much that you can do as event producers. Regardless of what you put in place, the event will not be able to continue in 50 or 60 miles per hour winds.
“The weather wasn’t great on Hogmanay last year, but we would have been able to host 50,000 people if we had been able to build and install all the infrastructure for the event, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case as we didn’t have that 36-hour period, so we weren’t in a position to deliver anything.
“We have access to Princes Street from 8am on December 30. We always have to make sure that the event goes in and out with the minimum level of disruption on the city centre. We always have to work to such tight timescales. There is very little leeway.
“We don’t have the luxury of a greenfield summer festival, where you would maybe have a week to put everything in place.”
Mr Thomson said there had been a concerted effort to building "confidence and reassurance" that the new year festival would be returning in full this year.
He added: "Our overall ticket sales across the festival are up on where they were at this point last year. International bookings for the torchlight processions are up by four per cent for the torchlight procession and 10 per cent for the street party.
"There is always a concern with a cancellation that there would be some kind of knock-on impact, so it's great that that level of international interest is still there."
Mr Thomson said he could not imagine a scenario where Edinburgh would want to abandon a midnight fireworks display above the castle, despite plans to use the latest technology to create more lighting effects this year.
He added: "Edinburgh still features in that global round-up of cities around the world where Hogmanay is celebrated.
"All of those cities still have that visual component, an explosion of colour, light and fireworks. That's where we still want to be and where we have to be.
"The biggest reaction last year's wasn't necessarily about the cancellation of events, it was about the cancellation of the fireworks. We weren't allowed to have any kind of display last year as the safety infrastructure was not in place. If you are going to do something like that which will draw in huge volumes of people, you have to make sure that it is done safely."
