City chiefs braced for winter festivities to make a big loss

Published on Thursday 22 October 2009 09:45

THE Capital's Hogmanay and Winter Festivals celebrations are set to plunge to their second successive loss, city leaders today admitted.

The events lost 500,000 last year and council finance officials say they are already bracing themselves for another loss this year.

Last-ditch attempts are now taking place to attract event sponsors or other funding in order to keep down the extent of the losses.

It is currently estimated that this year's losses will be at least 29,000.

It is feared that poor ticket sales or expensive additions to the line-up could push the losses up to 200,000 or more.

A new report on the council's financial performance so far this year said: "Winter Festivals are currently projected to overspend

by 29,000. There is a risk that proposals under consideration could generate an additional overspend.

"The department is attempting to manage the potential problem by seeking external funding and options to maximise ticket sales, both of which could effectively avoid any overspend. Every effort is continuing to bring the budget into balance."

It later adds that there is a risk of an overspend "if ticket sales projections and external funding does not materialise".

The street party has not had a headline sponsor since Royal Bank of Scotland walked away in 2007.

The council is aiming to sell out all tickets this year, after 10,000 tickets went unsold last year and extra advertising campaigns added to the costs.

However, this year's site capacity is also expected to be reduced to around 75,000, compared to 100,000 every year since the Millennium.

A council spokeswoman insisted that this year's event will still be a success.

She said: "Ticket sales are doing extremely well and we are aiming for a sell-out across the board this year.

"For the first time events will be spread out over five days and there are still some announcements to be made on the exciting mix of events planned for Edinburgh's Hogmanay this year."

Councillor Ian Murray, finance spokesman for the Labour group on the city council, said: "There can be no doubt that somebody makes money out of Hogmanay.

"In an economic recession, with the bleak picture the director of finance is painting, we should ask the people who do make money out of this to renegotiate contracts.

"I don't think the city can afford to not have Hogmanay – it is a key event for this time of year.

"We cannot afford to have a bleak Christmas and new year so everything needs to be done to make the event a success."