Edinburgh's Hogmanay organisers step up contingency plans to protect new year party from weather disruption
Organisers of Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations say contingency plans are in place to try to ensure the world-famous celebrations can survive several days of "challenging" weather predicted for the city.
The team behind the four-day festival is trying to put as much infrastructure in place as possible ahead to ensure the city's outdoor street party, live music events and fireworks display can go ahead.
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The Met Office, which has issued yellow weather warnings for strong winds, heavy rain and snow across Scotland’s central belt of Scotland until New Year’s Day, said the whole of the UK was facing a “very complicated” outlook.
However the wind and rain is currently predicted to ease in Edinburgh city centre around the time the gates to the official Hogmanay arena are due to open at 8pm.
Organisers Unique Events and Assembly, who produce the festival on behalf of the city council, have admitted the unsettled outlook and changing forecasts have hampered planning for the event, which is expected to attract around 55,000 revellers to the city centre.
However work has already been completed on the temporary stage needed for a Night Afore Concert, which will be headlined by Hot Dub Time Machine, and a Concert in the Gardens, which Texas, Callum Beattie and Carla Easton are performing at, while fireworks have also been installed at Edinburgh Castle for the traditional midnight display on Hogmanay.
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Water pumping equipment will also be deployed in the event of any flooding in Princes Street Gardens in the run-up to Hogmanay.
Unique director Al Thomson said: "The next 48 hours is going to be crucial in terms of the planning for and build of the events on Hogmanay.
"The weather forecast is looking more favourable on the 31st, but it's about making sure we have everything in place leading up to the event.
"The weather forecast has been all over the place. It is still changing constantly, which makes it different to put in place any concrete plans or timings around what we need to. We are having to be completely fluid.
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Hide Ad"The infrastructure for the Night Afore Concert on the 30th and the Concert in the Gardens on the 31st has already been built, and the fireworks are already in place in Edinburgh Castle.
"For the other events, we will be doing everything we can in our power to build everything else safely. We have contingency plans for anything that gets thrown our way."
Mr Thomson said a "very short window" of around 36 hours from 8am on 30 December was available to put all the infrastructure needed on and around Princes Street for the street party and carry out full safety checks before the gates open.


He added: "The main thing for us is to protect the various performance spaces and make sure that entertainment can happen. We're giving ourselves a bit more time to try to get all of that in place.
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Hide Ad"There is nothing forecast for the night of Hogmanay that is giving us any concerns about that infrastructure.
"We're only really expecting rain on the 30th and the early hours of the 31st. The main issue is the wind affecting anything that has to be built or adapted before we are ready. Our plan at the moment is very much for the gates to open at 8pm and for the street party to begin at 9pm."
Chief superintendent David Robertson, Police Scotland's gold commander for the Hogmanay festival, said: "I am encouraging people to think ahead about what they can do to help keep themselves safe.
"They should make sure they are prepared, have thought about how to travel to and from events, and think about the weather.
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Hide Ad"There is a yellow weather warning in place for the next few days, until the early hours of New Year's Day. We cannot be complacent about that.
"Severe weather can affect the event in a number of different ways. There could be disruption to travel, it could affect the construction of the arena and it could affect some of the entertainment.
"The event organisers and ourselves are keeping the forecast under constant review to see if it is going to affect our plans."
Andy Page, chief forecaster with the Met Office, said: “There is a very complicated weather forecast for the UK with snow, strong winds and heavy rain all feature for parts of the UK.
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Hide Ad“Almost the entire UK is covered by at least one weather warning during the coming week.
“With such a varied and complex weather situation there is potential for the pattern of warnings to shift and possibly escalate in some areas.
“With lots of celebrations and people on the move over the coming days, we are urging everyone to keep checking the forecast so they can update their plans.”
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