‘It’s the greatest party in the world,” declares Edinburgh’s Lord Provost, Frank Ross, opening the three-day Hogmanay festival on 30 December. He may well be right. Thousands of people pour into the city from all over the world to take part in the huge variety of events that mark the new year festival. Christmas celebrations were banned in Scotland between 1640 and 1712, and the day itself was not made a public holiday until 1958 – but new year festivities are deep in the nation’s DNA.
This year’s Hogmanay, however, begins under a shadow. Local residents whose homes are inside the central area cordoned off for the huge street party complained that their freedom to host celebrations in their own homes was being compromised. Others muttered about the vast, “tacky” Christmas market that turned Princes Street Gardens into an “end of the pier show”, in a debate framed as the battle for the soul of Edinburgh.
Princes Street is festooned in hoardings emblazoned with year’s festival motto “Be Together”, and Ed Bartlam, one of the directors of Underbelly, the festival’s producer, is brooking no dissent. “We find it extraordinary and sad that some people still don’t want to get behind the city and the positivity. The world is watching,” he said.
Hogmanay begins with a spectacular torchlit procession – 20,000 people marching along the Royal Mile, accompanied by drummers and pipers. The procession ends in Holyrood Park, where the shape of two figures holding hands was formed by massed ranks of torch bearers. In a year that will see the UK leave the EU, and renewed calls for Scottish independence, perhaps two figures turning their backs on each other might have felt more apt.
Dick and Dom get the party going on the 31st. Bairns Afore in Princes Street Gardens pits the two childrens’ TV presenters dressed in Sgt Pepper-style jackets in a kid-friendly DJ battle. Each plays two minutes of a pop song, and the crowd cheer for whose is best. The duo’s dad-dancing, air guitar and lively visuals keeps the energy high on this guilty-pleasures-style set.
Medieval St Giles’ Cathedral celebrates in more sedate style with the first and the final parts of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Vivaldi’s Dixit Dominus. The candlelight concert in the beautiful gothic building begins with extra timpani as the first fireworks of the night mark the end of the children’s concert. The cathedral’s choir have a bright and open sound and among a group of strong soloists, many locally born, tenor Liam Bonthrone is a standout.
As night draws in, Princes Street fills and the serious partying begins – with three separate music stages, three performing stages, street theatre, a silent disco and a ceilidh. Among the solid crowds are marvels – the giant illuminated polar bear puppets of Remue-Ménage, Gandini Jugglers and Avant Garde Dance.
Headlining the Waverley stage, Marc Almond helps to keep the crowd warm with a greatest hits set that moves from Stories of Johnny to Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart (dedicated to “the late great Gene Pitney” to a cover of Marc Bolan’s Hot Love, to Tainted Love, ending just before midnight with Say Hello (to 2020) Wave Goodbye (to 2019).
Mark Ronson, like Almond, keeps chat to a minimum. His two-hour set sees the new year in and ends with a tribute to and celebration of “one of the decade’s greatest singers” – Amy Winehouse and her Back to Black (with Ronson on keyboards) and then Valerie. “I was so nervous,” he admits, “[but] this has been one of my best new year’s ever.”
The next day, 1,000 intrepid (or unhinged?) souls welcome 2020 by donning fancy dress and jumping into the sea at South Queensferry for the charity fundraising Loony Dook swim. It’s a cold but glorious way to celebrate British warm-hearted eccentricity – and that’s just the spectators, although apparently at 7C with little wind conditions are relatively mild. A pair of Mr Blobbys, dragons, three blind mice, superheroes, elves and unicorns take the plunge, but the Trump Baby has several false starts before he, too, finally dips a toe in, to cheers and boos.
The festival, enjoyed by 70,000 people, winds up on New Year’s evening with folk singer Eddi Reader at McEwan Hall. The warmth of her voice and personality radiate in a generous set whose chat is as engaging as the songs. Her stories range from the Book of Kells to her mouse problem, to tales of her family – her uncle who had to take his false teeth out before he started singing, and St Elvis of Presley, who her father prayed to over 30 years ago to get her to No 1 when she was a young singer in Fairground Attraction. Robbie Burns features strongly, and she dedicates her 2014 track Pray the Devil Back to Hell to that “half Scottish boy, Donald Trump” before wishing us 2020 vision in 2020.
