Edinburgh's Hogmanay: Only one arrested reported after 50,000 revellers party into 2024

Pulp headline Scottish capital’s 30th anniversary celebrations

Fireworks explode over Edinburgh Castle and the Balmoral Hotel during Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

Good weather has been credited for a late ticket rush of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations, which saw just one arrest reported as 50,000 revellers celebrated the arrival of 2024 in the city.

Organisers say everything went according to plan as the 30th anniversary of the Scottish capital’s new year festival came to a climax.

Free tram trips were laid on from Picardy Place and the west end until 5am to help revellers get home safely after celebrations which played out amid wind and rain-free weather conditions.

City council leader Cammy Day has hailed the "huge success" of the city's celebrations, which featured a six-and-a-half-minute fireworks display choreographed to hits from The Proclaimers, Primal Scream and Chvrches, and a headline performance by Pulp in Princes Street Gardens lasting almost two hours.

Street theatre acts mingled with revellers inside the all-ticket arena, which included a trad music stage on Waverley Bridge and a mass “silent disco” arena on Market Street, both new additions since last year’s street party, while the Christmas market and funfair was also part of the all-ticket arena.

The Hogmanay festival, which was staged across four days for the first time since 2010-11, is currently produced on behalf of the city council by Unique Events and Assembly Festival.

The festival, which was valued at more than £48.5m for the economy last year, is expected to have attracted an overall audience of around 85,000 since Friday's torchlight procession curtain-raiser after a late rush of tickets since Christmas.

Revellers wear Jarvis Cocker masks ahead of Pulp's headline appearance at Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

Unique Events director Al Thomson told The Scotsman said: “The weather that we had over the four days was the dream for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay.

“We did have late ticket sales, but we know that people were getting up, looking out of their window and seeing beautiful blue skies in Edinburgh, and making up their mind to go to something. That’s why our final tickets sold out on Hogmanay morning when people could see how good the weather was going to be. It was a huge bonus for us.”

Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker - who thrilled the audience with performances of iconic hits like Disco 2000, Do You Remember The First Time?, This is HardCore and Common People, which was accompanied by two pipers for the finale of the concert - paid tribute at the event to former bandmate Steve Mackey, who passed away last March.

He also asked the crowd, who were given LED wristbands which lit up throughout Pulp’s performance, to send best wishes to his mother Christine after revealing she had fallen seriously ill over the festive season, with an image of her projected into the big screen behind the stage.

Jarvis Cocker's band Pulp headlined Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations.

Mr Thomson added: “Pulp’s show is right up there with the biggest and best concerts we have presented in the gardens over the last 30 years.

"The screen technology, the performance, the illumination of the castle and the LED wristbands make it one of my all-time Hogmanay highlights.

"We tried out the wristband technology last year when the Pet Shop Boys played, but the weather was horrendous and it didn’t quite work for that artist.

“However Pulp completely embraced the technology, they made it part of their show and you could see how much they enjoyed watching the crowd. We now just have to work out how to top it next year.

Fireworks explode over Edinburgh Castle during Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

“Pulp are up there with the calibre of artists that we bring to Edinburgh’s Hogmanay. The event has an amazing reputation. We don’t have to sell it that hard to artists and bands that they can come to Edinburgh, headline the new year celebrations, bring their friends and family, have a party and have a great time.

“We wanted to make changes to the street party this year to make sure that everyone coming to the event had something to do. We put up big screens along Princes Street to the Scott Monument so that they could watch Pulp in the gardens, which was the first time we’ve ever done that with the whole concert.”

Assembly managing director Dani Rae said: “Everything seemed to go pretty smoothly on the night.

“The weather was really good – it was quite mild, so people were not that cold.

"We made a number of changes to the street party after last year, including gate changes, which really worked, and having extra stages this year made a real difference.

"The ‘silent disco’ on Market Street was jumping all night and the crowd at the Waverley Bridge stage had a great time.

A free 'Sprogmanay' event was held at the National Museum as part of Edinburgh's Hogmanay festival.

"Everything really went according to plan on the night, so we will largely try to replicate that for next year, and there are always learnings from every event.”

Unique and Assembly are in the second year of a three-year contract to stage the festival, which saw the main Hogmanay events all set out on the day.

Partly funded by the Scottish Government, their programme included four-days of events at the Assembly Rooms for the first time and New Year’s Day events staged across 17 venues, including St Giles’ Cathedral, Greyfriars Kirk, the National Museum, the National Gallery, the Fruitmarket Gallery, the Roxy Theatre, the Assembly Rooms and the St Andrew Square Spiegeltent.

Lau, Bemz, Hot Chip, Kathryn Joseph, Fergus McCreadie, Becky Sikasa, Cloth, Cammy Barnes, Hannah Fisher, No Windows, Cera Impala and Man of Moon were among the acts to perform on the first day of 2024.

Ms Rae added: ”A lot of our team now really know how Hogmanay works – the more you do it the better you get at it.

"It’s been great to have a full programme of events in the Assembly Rooms this year, to give us an indoor offering as well as outdoor events.

"One of the things we really learned most from last year was that although many people really want to come out and have fun at this time of year, not everybody wants to be outdoors.

"We definitely attracted a different crowd to the Assembly Rooms than the one you would probably see in Princes Street Gardens.

"We have deliberately tried to spread events out across town this year, with the First Footin’ programme on New Year’s Day, and having the torchlight procession start at the Meadows and finish at Castle Terrace, which we’ve had really good feedback about.”

Police Scotland assistant chief constable Tim Mairs, the “gold commander” for the main events on Hogmanay, said: “Edinburgh has welcomed in 2024 with another wonderful celebration in the shape of the Hogmanay street party which, I am glad to say, passed without any major issues for us.“Our planning has been ongoing for several months and we have worked closely with event organisers, the city council and other emergency services to ensure the safe conclusion of all the events that took place over Hogmanay."