Edinburgh's Hogmanay organisers this morning unveiled the remaining details of the New Year's festival programme. The Winter Festival takes place from Thursday 30 December 2010 to New Year's Day 2011, with a rugby match on the 2nd January.
The festivities start a day later this year after Edinburgh City Council ended up having to pay for a £240,000 budget overspend last year. The Night Afore event (last year it was a Light Night) was dropped from this year's programme.
Tickets for the Hogmanay Street Party, the centrepiece of the New Year's festival, have gone up to £15 each, an increase of £5 on last year's ticket price of £10. Numbers have also been capped at 80,000 revellers in the Princes Street arena on Hogmanay night.
“Let’s forget about the darkness and the doldrums and enjoy the best New Year celebration in the world," declared an upbeat Pete Irvine, Director of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay. Irvine promised “an action-packed programme studded with artists of international acclaim and integrity."
Four street party stages
As in previous years, the street party will build up to and beyond the Hogmanay Fireworks display at the bells, with live music, entertainment and DJ sets, but with the addition this year of another DJ stage.
This brings the total to four stages: the West End DJ Stage, Waverley Stage, Mound Party Stage, and a new East End DJ Stage.
This year’s Street Party musical line-up includes The Coral plus guests, Treacherous Orchestra and the winning band of Hog The Stage competition on the Waverley Stage; DJ sets from the Kaiser Chiefs and Goldie Lookin Chain on the East End; and international dance pioneers Booka Shade and Grum on the West End Stage.
The Great Calverto hosts Michelle McManus, Stephen Hunter of X-Factor fame, and the Calverto-ettes on the new stage.
Special guest Billy Bragg will be on the Ross Theatre stage for the Concert in the Gardens alongside previously announced headliners Biffy Clyro and The Charlatans.
"Resolution Square"
The Mound Precinct is this year being dubbed "Resolution Square" with Hogmanay related events taking place there over the three days.
Kicking things off at what the organisers are calling the "new hub" for Hogmanay, is the four-hour Opening Night featuring Aidan O’Rourke and Brian Kellock, among others.
New Year's Day sees a series of events, under the banner One Day, made possible by a £190,000 grant from the Scottish Government’s Festivals Expo Fund.
At 1pm, on 1-1-11, the free music and poetry One Day: Resolution Square Live includes the reading of 11 Resolution Haikus (one line poems of 17 syllables) by the likes of poets Don Paterson, A L Kennedy, Kathleen Jamie, John Burnside and Edinburgh’s Makar, Ron Butlin. The haikus will be projected onto giant screens.
In the evening, K T Tunstall will host the ticketed One Day: Resolution Concert with performances from King Creosote, as well as Kassidy and Silver Columns.
The traditional Torchlight Procession, which culminates in a spectacular Son et Lumière on Calton Hill, is back again this year on 30th December.
Also announced today was the return of the One O’Clock Run, a fun run from Edinburgh Castle esplanade to Holyrood Park.
On Sunday 2 January, Edinburgh Rugby will stage The Big Bash – where the team takes on arch rivals the Glasgow Warriors at Murrayfield.
The Filmhouse will be showing films that star the city of Edinburgh including Trainspotting, Hallam Foe and The Illusionist, while Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Carnival will occupy its usual place on Market Street from Monday 27 December to Tuesday 4 January.
The Rt. Hon. George Grubb, Lord Lieutenant and Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh, said: "Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is famous all over the world, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city to bring in the New Year in style. Hogmanay is a vibrant and vital part of the city’s festival offering.”