Edinburgh’s Hogmanay: the street party

Edinburgh turns its city center into one gigantic party for New Year’s Eve, a day known in Scots as Hogmanay (pretty much tied with the German Silvester for most adorable thing to call New Year’s Eve).

Various stages go up around Edinburgh, each hosting multiple acts throughout the evening. One stage features contemporary Scottish music, and another hosts a ceilidh band. This year on the main stage, down in Princes Street Gardens, it was Bjorn Again (an ABBA tribute band), Soul II Soul, and Lily Allen. (Last year the headliners were the Pet Shop Boys, and I’m kicking myself a little bit that we didn’t go to that one.)

It was hard to know where to spend our time, with so many interesting things going on. Runaway Juno and I stopped for a while at Hot Dub Time Machine, a DJ who works his way from 1954 through to present day. I was there for the 80s and early 90s, clearly the best era in the history of music, before making my way down to the main stage.

The entire event is ticketed, with different price levels depending on how close to the main stage you’d like to wander. You’re allowed to bring alcohol in to the ticketed area, as long as it’s not in glass containers, and we were glad to have stopped by a Kwik-E-Mart for some cans of beer plastic mini-bottles of whisky before heading in. (We were a little less glad later in the evening, when we realized that the only toilets available were old-timey port-a-potties.)

This year we were invited to be a part of #blogmanay, the social media campaign surrounding Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, and we were delighted with the all-access passes we were given. Readers of this blog will know that I am not so big on crowds, so the passes were perfect for getting me around without having to enter the squeeze. Without them, I probably would have avoided the Mound all together, and mainly stayed on Princes Street and in Princes Street Gardens. Scott, on the other hand, doesn’t mind throngs, and he happily wandered all over the place.

Just as for the previous night’s torchlight procession, we were lucky to have delightfully dry, mild and clear weather for the hogmanay street party. In the week leading up to it, the forecast changed dramatically, and we were basically ready with any number of clothing combinations (if you’re planning a trip to Edinburgh for the street party, I’d recommend packing long underwear, waterproofs, warm comfortable waterproof shoes, a hat, scarf, and gloves, even though you may not end up needing any of it).

While lots of cities around the world put on big fireworks displays at the stroke of midnight, Edinburgh does them hourly starting at 9pm. The earlier displays are small teasers for the main event.

The midnight fireworks, which emanated from Edinburgh Castle, were truly lovely. It had been a long time since we’d attended proper New Year’s Eve fireworks (the Germans seem to prefer the DIY type), and I’d forgotten how wonderful it can be to feel the booms vibrate through your body as the lights unfurl above.

If you don’t want to attend the street party, I hear there are still some great vantage points for the fireworks around the city, especially up the Salisbury Crags.

After the fireworks, there was of course a giant rendition of Auld Lang Syne (complete with lyrics displayed on various screens, meaning there was a chance that some folks were actually singing the correct words), and then Lily Allen got on with her concert. Overall Edinburgh’s Hogmanay was a highly enjoyable way to ring in the New Year, and I completely understand why people travel to Scotland in the middle of winter to experience it.