Grab a torchlight and your blonde wig, and join a bunch of noisy, hairy vikings and Scotsmen as they drag a viking warship up Edinburgh's Calton Hill. A 15,000 strong crowd is expected to wend its way from the Edinburgh Old Town down to Princes Street, to Waterloo Place and up to the ancient Edinburgh meeting ground, Calton hill.

On arriving at the hill firework displays and the blazing flames from the ship will light up the night sky when the ship itself is put to the torch.

Stalwarts of the display are historical fight display team The Clann who will lead hundreds of torch carriers. They will be accompanied by the pipes and drums of both traditional and contemporary outfits.

In the past, the pipes and drums component has included the Dhol Drummers, the Erskine, Stewart's Melville and Coalburn Pipe Bands, the Sativa Drummers, She-Boom, the Coalburn Silver Band, the Impact Drumming Group, the Gutty Slippers and Commotion.

How to get your torches

Torch vouchers cost £4.00 in advance or £5.00 on the night and are available from the Hogmanay Box Office and other Hogmanay ticket outlets. On the day you exchange vouchers for the torches from 4.30pm in Parliament Square by St Giles Cathedral.

You can also buy torches on the day from 4.30pm in Parliament Square, at the Lawnmarket / George IV Bridge, at the Tron Information Centre and at Mound / Mound Place junction.

Money raised by the sale of torches to all those taking part in the procession will go to Edinburgh's One City Trust and Radio Forth's Help a Child Appeal.

The torchlight procession starts at Parliament Square by St Giles Cathedral, 6.30pm