{"id":666162,"date":"2026-01-01T05:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T05:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/666162\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T05:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T05:07:16","slug":"thousands-gather-as-edinburgh-welcomes-new-year-with-spectacular-fireworks-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/666162\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands gather as Edinburgh welcomes new year with spectacular fireworks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Crowds of people gathered along the city\u2019s Princes Street as the hour struck and the six-and-a-half-minute display got underway above Edinburgh Castle.<\/p>\n<p>Accompanied by a soundtrack featuring the likes of Lewis Capaldi, Eurythmics and Simple Minds, the spectacle concluded with a version of Auld Lang Syne from Skye duo Valtos, while a saltire was projected onto Castle Rock.<\/p>\n<p>The display marked the culmination of an evening of festivities in the Scottish capital, which included the Concert in the Gardens headlined by the band Wet Leg.<\/p>\n<p>The 45,000 people attending the sold-out Hogmanay Street Party were entertained with pipe bands, drummers, a DJ set from Belgian duo 2manydjs and a silent disco.<\/p>\n<p>Ann Bracefield, a primary school teacher from Wellington in New Zealand, was among the thousands at the street party.<\/p>\n<p>The 55-year-old said she had come to Edinburgh for the event because \u201cit\u2019s where to be for New Years\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a teacher friend who tried to get in last year from New Zealand and he missed it because it was cancelled,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, it was like, \u2018right, I\u2019m going to try\u2019. So, to Scott from Bangkok, I actually made it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2.82923315.jpg\" alt=\"New Year\u2019s celebrations\" data-title=\"New Year\u2019s celebrations\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Steve Welsh\" data-usage-terms=\"\"  \/>The display lasted for six-and-a-half minutes (Steve Welsh\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>Elias Branting, 24, who travelled from Sweden for the event, said it had a \u201cgreat\u201d atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s lots of people, there\u2019s lots of food, there\u2019s lots of light, which is awesome,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe entire city is lit up, which is great, and we\u2019re looking forward to the fireworks as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s sold-out event marked the return of the festival following last year\u2019s cancellation due to bad weather.<\/p>\n<p>Conditions in Edinburgh this year were clear and chilly, although the city avoided the weather warnings for snow and ice which come into place for parts of Scotland from 6am on New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the celebrations, First Minister John Swinney quoted Robert Burns\u2019 Auld Lang Syne to urge people to show small acts of kindness in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crowds of people gathered along the city\u2019s Princes Street as the hour struck and the six-and-a-half-minute display got&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-666162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115818112335730608","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}