Michael Blackley: Can Hogmanay party stay streets ahead?

Published on Thursday 26 November 2009 08:37

IT WAS one of the highlights of the year in Edinburgh, with images of the city's winter skyline being beamed around the world. But with national BBC TV cameras now focused on Big Ben as the clock strikes midnight on Hogmanay, more competition from across the UK, budget pressures and a reduced event capacity, there are fears Edinburgh is losing its crown as the home of Hogmanay.

The importance of the event to the city's economy is all the greater given this week's news that Edinburgh's festivals are facing renewed competition from south of the Border via a new London Festival Fringe comedy event gearing up for a launch next August. And the boss of VisitScotland has also raised the prospect of taking another successful city event – The Gathering – away from Edinburgh.

All of which piles even more pressure on this year's Hogmanay street party.

Last year's event suffered a major loss, with the council having to spend 1.33 million on it – nearly half a million pounds more than it had intended.

Capacity was also down to 90,000, the first time it had fallen short of its 100,000 capacity for years and a far cry from the 300,000-plus that crammed into Princes Street in its early days.

And the value of the event to the city has also fallen. While it was estimated that revellers spent 29.2m in the city at the 2007 street party, that was estimated to have fallen to 26.9m last year.

Former council leader Donald Anderson, now a consultant for communications firm PPS, is among those who say the city Hogmanay is not the "pre-eminent" event it was. London, for one, has invested a lot of money in its New Year's Eve street party on the Thames and it now attracts massive crowds.

However, city festivals and events champion Steve Cardownie insists that this year's event will remain the UK's best Hogmanay party. "Having 80,000 revellers against the backdrop of the floodlit castle is unique in the world," he said.

"Scotland is renowned for Hogmanay and there is no better place to celebrate it than in Scotland's capital city. I am sure that this year we have a programme that will excite visitors and make them want to come back again."

Tickets for the Concert in the Gardens, headlined by Madness, are selling well, with the more expensive "enclosure" tickets – within the hedged area at the Ross Bandstand – now sold out. But no figures are yet available to show how street party tickets, which allow revellers access to all the other stages, are selling.

However, organisers say sales have been "buoyant" compared to the same time last year.

Pete Irvine, whose company Unique Events has run the Capital's Hogmanay celebrations since they moved to Princes Street in 1993, insisted that Edinburgh remains the place to be at Hogmanay, especially since events now span five days. He said: "We are the only celebration with more than one thing going on. None of the other cities have a festival on this scale." But he conceded that financial pressures that come with the event are impacting the programme.

In Aberdeen, council leaders halved the budget for the annual celebrations to 150,000. Other councils have also been shaving budgets for public events.

Edinburgh has to find 90m of savings over the next three years – and there have been some suggestions that the winter festivals could face funding cuts to plug the gap in the council's finances.

But Mr Irvine said the event is already facing up to pressures and can't take more cuts. "We have serious budget pressures and that is what makes it difficult," he said. "We don't get budgets confirmed until late in the day so we do a lot more at the last minute than we would like.

"But my main mission is to keep the line-up as strong, varied and exciting as is possible."

This year's programme starts on 29 December with the Torchlight Procession and continues through to January 2, a day later than usual, with the last of the Off Kilter shows.

For Paul Bush, chief executive of EventScotland, it is that growing programme that means Edinburgh remains the number one place to enjoy the turn of the year. He said: "London just does a fireworks display and not a lot else. You just really show up at the water for the display then head home.

"When Edinburgh came up with the concept of the party all those years ago it truly was unique. Everyone else has been trying to catch up and the challenge is to keep pushing the boundaries.

"Nowhere offers the strength and diversity of programme that Edinburgh offers, but we can't be complacent; we have to keep investing to stay up there."

Edinburgh had a head start by being ahead of its time with the street party concept for Hogmanay. There is no question it now faces challenges from elsewhere. But whether it can still attract people from all over the world will only truly become clear when the big day comes around this year. And a lot is also sure to depend on whether the event is seen by the council as an easy target to make the cuts they need to find.