Hogmanay

What: The live­ly and rev­el­ry Hog­manay is Scotland’s pas­sion­ate 3 day New Years eve cel­e­bra­tion fea­tures every­thing from street par­ties, torch­light parades, music, cos­tumes, con­certs, danc­ing, a fire­work finale and even a dip in the Scot­tish ocean.

Pre­vi­ous­ly the world’s largest New Years Eve Par­ty until tick­et­ing require­ments were intro­duced, Hog­manay kicks off with a torch­lit parade through the streets of Edin­burgh the day before New Years Eve and then com­bines tra­di­tion­al Scot­tish cul­ture, includ­ing the tra­di­tion­al Ceilidh dance under the Cas­tle fea­tur­ing bag­pipes and kilts galore, and the prac­tice of first-foot­ing which involves being the first indi­vid­ual to enter another’s house in the new year with food and drink, with the tra­di­tion­al Fire­works and Street Parades and tra­di­tion­al singing of Auld Lang expec­tant of New Years Fes­ti­vals help­ing to make this one of the worlds great­est places to be to ring in a good new Year.

Nat­u­ral­ly the fes­ti­val con­cludes with the only appro­pri­ate way to mark a new year — a dip into a cold Scot­tish riv­er known as the loony Dook – just make sure you’ve got some good Scot­tish whiskey to hand to warm your­self after­wards !

When: Hog­manay last for 3 days, with the Edin­burgh fes­tiv­i­ties begin­ning on the 30^th with an evening torch pro­ces­sion, fol­lowed by a full day of events on the 31^st and the refresh­ing and cold Loony Dook on New Years day.

Where: While Hog­manay events take place all over Scot­land, the main events on the 31st take place in Edin­burgh with the main parade, pro­ces­sions and torch­lit parades cen­tred on Princes Street gar­dens in Cen­tral Edin­burgh, which is also the site for the Hog­manay con­certs and offers the best van­tage point for the mid­night fire­works, although tick­ets are required.

For those with­out tick­ets or access to the street par­ty there are a range of free view­ing spots to wit­ness the Edin­burgh cas­tle fire­works, with the North Bridge and Cal­ton Hill being pop­u­lar spots, on top of this if you book long enough in advance a num­ber of hotels have bal­conies and view­ing plat­forms of the cas­tle.

Dura­tion:  Hog­manay is offi­cial­ly a 3 day event, with the torch­lit parade on the 30^th Decem­ber begin­ning pro­ceed­ings and start­ing at 7pm, for the Main events on the 31^st events begin at 11:30am with an indoor con­cert, with the offi­cial start of the evenings cel­e­bra­tions begin­ning at 7:30pm with the open­ing of the street par­ty and the con­cert, fol­lowed by  Ceilidh under the Cas­tle start­ing at 8pm the begin­ning of the main con­cert  at 9pm and the fire­work finale from Edin­burgh cas­tle at mid­night fol­lowed by a Hog­manay after-part kick­ing off at 1am on the 1^st of Jan­u­ary.

While the events are staged in tim­ings, it is rec­om­mend­ed to arrive ear­ly and plan and obtain tick­ets will in advance as the events enforces a crowd capac­i­ty lim­it­ed and all events will sell out, for those that attend the after-par­ty or for those who’ve indulged in Hog­manay a lit­tle too much and are look­ing for a refresh­ing way to begin their year — the loony Dook takes place at 2:15.

Tick­ets: Due to crowd con­trol cel­e­bra­tions tick­et require­ments are in place across a large num­ber of the Edin­burgh Hog­manay, with tick­ets required to the main con­cert, Ceilidh under the Cas­tle, and for pre­mi­um view­ing sports for the street parade and fire­works. Direc­tions for pur­chas­ing tick­ets for all events are avail­able at https://www.edinburghshogmanay.com and there are also the option of buy­ing clos­er to the event in per­son, although long queues and no guar­an­tee of avail­abil­i­ty is offered.

There is also the option to wit­ness the street parade and fire­works for free from var­i­ous van­tage points in the city with the North Bridge and Cal­ton Hill being the rec­om­mend­ed spots for those with­out tick­ets – although expect crowds and accept the need to arrive well in advance of the events.

Need to Know: Most Impor­tant­ly wrap up warm and don’t under­es­ti­mate the Scot­tish Win­ter con­di­tions – Hog­manay has been can­celled in the past due to high winds, also be pre­pared for stand­ing as a lot of the non-tick­et­ed events require ear­ly atten­dance and peri­ods of long stand­ing.

To help a lit­tle for those order­ing tick­ets over the phone,  the offi­cial pro­nun­ci­a­tion of Hog­manay is   HOG-ma-NAY.

More Infor­ma­tion: The offi­cial Hog­manay web­site is (https://www.edinburghshogmanay.com) which includes infor­ma­tion on the fes­ti­val, the enter­tain­ment line-up, the sched­ule and tick­et­ing infor­ma­tion.