{"id":671723,"date":"2026-01-03T18:55:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T18:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671723\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T18:55:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T18:55:30","slug":"edinburgh-ready-to-enjoy-hogmanay-after-disappointment-of-last-year-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671723\/","title":{"rendered":"Edinburgh ready to enjoy Hogmanay after \u2018disappointment\u2019 of last year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The four-day festival begins on Monday with a torchlight procession including vikings, drummers and pipers, and will continue throughout the run-up to the New Year, including a massive street party.<\/p>\n

About 2.5 million visitors have already been welcomed to the city for the winter festivals, which began in November, according to organisers Unique Assembly events, and Edinburgh Airport expects more than 60,000 travellers to fly into the capital in the two days leading up to Hogmanay.<\/p>\n

Rock band Wet Leg is headlining the Concert in the Gardens in West Princes Street Garden on December 31, followed by fireworks at midnight.<\/p>\n

On New Year\u2019s Day, the city centre, as well as Leith and Portobello, will host a First Footin\u2019 programme of events, including Garbage singer Shirley Manson, and former first minister Nicola Sturgeon.<\/p>\n

\"NewVisitors from Brazil ahead of Hogmanay New Year celebrations in Edinburgh (Jane Barlow\/PA)<\/p>\n

Penny Dougherty, director of Unique Assembly events, said the torchlight procession \u201csignals the start of New Year celebrations around the world\u201d, and that broadcaster CNN would be broadcasting live from the capital\u2019s celebrations for the full four days.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThe weather this evening is due to be cold, crisp, clear and calm \u2013 perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat said, it is Scotland. It\u2019s winter. It\u2019s cold. The majority of our events are outdoors. We ask everyone to dress appropriately, dress up warm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Dougherty added: \u201cThere are hundreds of people who are working tirelessly to make sure the city looks and feels its best after last year\u2019s disappointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is welcome in Edinburgh and remember, no Scotland, no party.\u201d<\/p>\n

City of Edinburgh Council leader, Jane Meagher, said that ensuring many events were free to attend helped to make it accessible to residents and to be \u201cintegrated\u201d into the city.<\/p>\n

Ms Meagher said: \u201cIt remains the place to ring in the bells and this year is no exception. We\u2019re immensely proud that so many people choose to share their new year with us and enjoy everything that this city has to offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it iconic or is it classic? To me, it\u2019s both.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewVikings from the Shetland South Mainland Up Helly Aa Jarl Squad leading the torchlight procession through Edinburgh city centre in 2023 (Jane Barlow\/PA)<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cWe have four full days of events, with many of the festivities free to attend, and that is so important because this is a kind of celebration that we don\u2019t want to see imposed on the city, but integrated and very much a part of the life of the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s why we want everybody, residents and visitors alike, to feel fully involved in our Hogmanay event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chief Superintendent David Robertson, of Police Scotland, said: \u201cOur role is to support the event organiser to deliver a safe and secure event and we\u2019re very proud to be doing that. In truth, we can\u2019t do it alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

He asked those attending to \u201cthink about your own safety, to plan your journey, to think about how you get in and out of the event, and to act on any suspicions you might have, if you see someone that\u2019s vulnerable, if you see someone acting suspiciously\u201d, to alert police or stewards.<\/p>\n

Mr Robertson added: \u201cWe wish everyone a safe and enjoyable New Year when it comes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The four-day festival begins on Monday with a torchlight procession including vikings, drummers and pipers, and will continue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-671723","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\/115832692825069209","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671723","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=671723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}