Winter Festivals feel chill again

City council funding for the Winter Festivals was reduced because of its cash crisis, leading to the festive celebrations being scaled back.

Council chiefs had warned organisers of the events that they had to bring their programmes in on budget.

But officials have now admitted that, despite the action taken, the bad weather is expected to mean income from the events will be hit.

It is thought that many of the 80,000 available Hogmanay tickets may have gone unsold.

The Winter Festivals went 500,000 over budget in 2008/09 and made another 240,000 loss last year.

Now a joint report by the council's director of corporate services, Jim Inch, and director of finance Donald McGougan, published this week, has warned of another loss this year. It said: "There is concern that, due to adverse weather, income from the Winter Festivals will be considerably under budget."

Full details of ticket sales and the amount lost are not expected to be published until early in the summer. But officials have made clear that they expect another loss.

It is understood that the main reason for the loss is lower-than-expected sales of tickets for the Hogmanay street party - where ticket prices surged by 50 per cent to 15 - and the new programme of New Year's Day events at Resolution Square.

In contrast, the main Concert in the Gardens concert, headlined by Biffy Clyro and The Charlatans, and The Keilidh on The Mound, were all sold out.

Income for the council from Edinburgh's Christmas mainly comes from rents charged to the traders and attractions - meaning that lower sales or visitor numbers will not impact its income this year.

Councillor Gordon Munro, culture and leisure spokesman for the Labour group on the city council, called for more to be done to protect city coffers from Hogmanay losses.

He said: "It is a pity that it is making a loss for the fourth year in a row. I am sure that, with dialogue with the people that provide the events, we could come up with a solution that would cost the city less."

He added: "I think the price (of street party passes] will have been an element. People are very tight for money at this time of year and wage increases are not being given so the cost of living contributes to decisions about whether you pay for events like Hogmanay."I do not think the increased ticket price will have helped."

A spokeswoman for Unique Events, which organises the Hogmanay programme, said: "We have not got final figures in yet so I cannot speculate at this stage."

Councillor Steve Cardownie, festivals and events champion for the city council, said: "The final data is not yet available and it's important that we don't speculate before the figures are published. However, given the extreme weather in December it's possible that there will have been some impact on attendance at outdoor events across the country, including Edinburgh's Winter Festivals."