Cardownie: It's business as usual

THE Hogmanay Street Party will not be threatened by a cost-saving shake-up in the way Edinburgh's winter festivals are organised, the city's events champion said today.

Councillor Steve Cardownie said the event was the "jewel in the crown" of the Capital's festivals and guaranteed it would remain at the heart of the winter programme, despite 10,000 tickets going unsold for last year's event, which saw a loss of more than £500,000.

But he said that the council hoped to dramatically reduce its own involvement in the running of Hogmanay and Christmas events – known jointly as the Winter Festival – handing over marketing and ticket sales to private operators to cut the costs and the risk to the city.

Edinburgh firm Unique Events currently has a contract to produce the Hogmanay celebrations, but ticketing and marketing are carried out by the city.

Cllr Cardownie said: "The Winter Festival is our only festival that's actually delivered by the council officials and we don't regard it as the best model. We've got very good staff involved in overseeing the festival, but in terms of the entrepreneurial support and in terms of getting together a programme, knowing what the public are looking for, that's best left to the people that do it for a living.

"It's a bit galling that we're continually investing in events which bring money into the private sector and the city and it's one of our duties to do that, however it would be great if we could look at ways of further private sector involvement and sponsorship."

However, Cllr Cardownie said he could not rule out a cut in the budget for the event. He said the council's £700,000 annual events budget remained the same as last year, and funding pledged by the Scottish Government had been forthcoming, but added: "We have the same amount in the budget but because of the funding gap that's appeared last year and the year before, we have to look at the fact that there's a deficit – that may have an effect on the amount that we have to spend this year."

However, Cllr Cardownie said he believed a cut in spending – such as the reduced budget on last year's firework display – would not necessarily be noticeable to partygoers. "I would defy anyone who saw last year's fireworks to be able to tell the difference," he said.

"If everybody thinks that the festival is going to be unrecognisable they can think again. The iconic event is the Hogmanay Street Party – that's the jewel in the crown and we're still full steam ahead for that.

"I can't say it will be unaffected because it's changed frequently in terms of its set-up but we recognise the importance of the Street Party, the German Market and the Big Wheel."

Last year's Winter Festival brought £32 million to the city, although this is understood to have shrunk from an estimated £53m in 2002/03.