FULL PROGRAMME for EDINBURGH's HOGMANAY ANNOUNCED TODAY Organisers O
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PRESS RELEASE MONDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2014 WE ARE THE PARTY! FULL PROGRAMME FOR EDINBURGH’S HOGMANAY ANNOUNCED TODAY Organisers of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay today invited revellers to join the planet’s hottest party when they announced the glittering programme of events for this year. Edinburgh’s Hogmanay will run from Tuesday 30 December to Thursday 1 January 2015, and is expected to attract tens of thousands of visitors from around the world. The three day Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Festival, produced on behalf of the City of Edinburgh Council, will kick off with the hugely popular Torchlight Procession on Tuesday 30 December which is supported by EventScotland. A complete sell-out for the last few years, this event is expected to attract over 30,000 participants and 8,000 torchbearers in the procession which winds through the city centre from George IV Bridge to the finale which can be viewed from Calton Hill as well as Waterloo Place where there will be additional entertainment. This year access to Calton Hill will be exclusively available for torchbearers and their accompanying friends and family. In this centenary year of the start of World War I, a contribution from the sale of torches will be donated to Erskine. The flagship Concert in the Gardens on Wednesday 31 December will turn West Princes Street Gardens into THE party with Björn Again, the world renowned Australian ABBA Show kicking off the evening, followed by Grammy award winning dance/R&B superstars Soul II Soul closing their worldwide 25th anniversary tour and headliner Lily Allen who, on the last date of her international tour, will ensure the audience is partying through the bells at midnight. Enclosure tickets have already sold out. Edinburgh’s Hogmanay presents the biggest ever Hot Dub Time Machine at the World Famous Street Party. The time-travelling dance party which usually sees in New Year in Sydney, returns to Edinburgh to celebrate New Year for the first time in the Home of Hogmanay. 75,000 revellers across the arena will travel back to 1954 and then Moonwalk, Mashed Potato and Macarena their way through the bells and into 2015 with a banging song from each year relayed from the Rewinder Stage on the Mound across screens the length of Princes Street. This is a full-on alternative interactive experience, the crowd enjoying a mass sing-and-dance along. This year the Street Party welcomes a stellar Scottish line-up with a headline performance on the Waverley Stage from UK festival-favourites Twin Atlantic, joined by the winners of this year’s Mercury Prize, Edinburgh’s own alternative hip hop group Young Fathers, and Indie champions The Twilight Sad. Audiences at the Scottish Stage will enjoy performances from Scotland’s chanteuse extraordinaire singer-songwriter Eddi Reader with special guests Radio 2 Folk Award nominated Breabach and the band led by Scottish piping phenomenon Ross Ainslie & Jarlath Henderson. At the Keilidh on the Mound revellers will be birling through the bells to The Smashers (featuring members of Rura), Hugh MacDiarmid’s Haircut and The Sensational Jimi Shandrix Experience. Revellers will enjoy countdown firework displays at 9.00pm, 10.00pm and 11.00pm rising to the crescendo of the spectacular Midnight Moment as the fireworks lift from the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle and Calton Hill. Followed by the world’s largest rendition of Auld Lang Syne as old friends and new join hands across the arena to sing Burn’s anthem. All stages are live from 9.00pm to 1.00am but the party starts from 7.00pm throughout the Street Party arena with bars, rides and attractions. Free NightBus services will run throughout Edinburgh and the Lothians for revellers at the Street Party and throughout the City Centre, supported by Lothian Buses and Johnnie Walker. These safe rides home are part of the Join the Pact global responsible drinking initiative from Johnnie Walker which has secured over one million personal commitments from people across the world to never to drink and drive. Councillor Steve Cardownie, Festivals and Events Champion at the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “Edinburgh will be the greatest place on earth to say goodbye to 2014 and bring in the bells for Hogmanay. From the Street Party to the Keilidh, the Concert in the Gardens to the Loony Dook, this is going to be a jam-packed three day festival of fun. “Every year, people travel from all over the world to experience Edinburgh’s midnight moment, and this year all eyes will yet again be on the Capital as locals and visitors come together to celebrate. With performances from Lily Allen and Mercury prize-winners Young Fathers, it’s also one of the best outdoor concerts in Britain. Local residents planning to celebrate New Year on their doorstep can snap up an early bird discount on tickets, but be quick – the discount will only apply until 28 November.” Pete Irvine, Director of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, said ““The Street Party boasts the world’s biggest open air dance floor and this year we really are going to party, including at The Concert – we should say Party – in the Gardens. On the other stages we’ve got the perfect Scottish line-up and this reverberates the next day at SCOT.LANDS where 100 artists across 11 venues will be part of what is probably Scotland’s biggest free festival. And it’s still only the first day of the year.” On New Year’s Day, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay presents Scot:Lands – incredible new worlds hidden in 11 beautiful buildings and outdoor spaces in the city’s Old Town, where audiences can discover the very best in music, art and theatre, created and curated by Scotland’s most innovative artists, arts organisations and musicians: a festival in itself – all free. Scot:Lands is supported by the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund. Building on the enormous popularity of this event last year, audiences are invited to pre-register free of charge at edinburghshogmanay.com to be allocated a time slot to come to Home:Land at the National Museum of Scotland. There they will begin their randomly selected and magical journey around these familiar and unknown, indoor and outdoor, atmospheric venues. Their first boarding card could direct them to Heart:Land presented by musician Roddy Hart and his friends from Withered Hand, Lonesome Fire and Admiral Fallow; or to HebCelt:Land recreating one of the most atmospheric festivals on the planet with the help of Rura, Iain Morrison and Malin; or even the Island of Mull with 3 on this IS:Land featuring Kenny Anderson, The Hannah Fisher Trio and Des Lawson. Neu:Land offers an exhilarating cabaret of life from Neu Reekie, Edinburgh’s most exciting arts collective while Blether:Land and the Scottish Storytelling Festival present a programme inspired by Sir Walter Scott and the poet Robert Fergusson, and a series of interactive street games, inspired by school playgrounds of the past, can be found at High School:Land. As well as music and spoken word, audiences will come upon a film by Virginia Heath at From Scot:Land shown in a closed-off Old Town street, and a unique screening at Tide:Land in a hidden location which will be accompanied by Joe McAlinden’s haunting and beautiful score. Barn:Land brings Deeside to Edinburgh in the shape of Woodend Barn and in a new commission from Scotland’s National Centre for Dance, choreographer Steinvor Palsson has created an elegiac and enthralling dance sequence in Wholly:Land, one of the city’s most renowned landmark buildings. Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, said: “Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Festival is a perfect example of how we can promote all that is best about Scotland. Part of Scotland’s Winter Festivals, the capital’s wonderful celebrations are screened across the globe and its iconic images demonstrate the year-round cultural vitality of Edinburgh, both as tourist destination and as the world’s leading festival city. “As we approach the close of what has been an eventful and historic year for Scotland, the 2014 Hogmanay Festival will be no exception, and once again we proudly encourage Scots and Scots at heart from around the world to join us to see out this incredible year in style. “I am delighted that a Scottish Government Expo funding award of £200,000 is enabling Edinburgh’s Hogmanay to bring Scottish artists to their huge international audience, through the innovative SCOT:LANDS project. This adds another exciting dimension to this quintessentially Scottish experience, and will ensure that 2015 starts with a real bang.” Also on New Year’s Day revellers can work off the excess of the night afore with a dip in the River Forth in the annual Queensferry Loony Dook. Starting with a Dookers Parade through South Queensferry featuring pipers and a host of entertainment the brave, or daft, Dookers will take the chilly plunge for charity under the world renowned Forth Bridge. For those not brave enough to get their feet wet, there are plenty of vantage points to watch the action and spectators are welcomed. The award winning #Blogmanay was conceived in 2012 as a means of using travel bloggers and a high-impact social media campaign to showcase the unique experience of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, whilst using the festival as a gateway to explore and discover the delights of visiting Scotland, the ‘Home of Hogmanay’ in winter. This year #Blogmanay is back again, encouraging locals, visitors and attractions across the city from 23 November to 5 January to create a huge bank of live digital content – blogs, reviews, videos, photographs and tweets, highlighting Edinburgh & Scotland as a premier winter destination.