Edinburgh’s Hogmanay organisers warn funding has reached ‘crisis point’ ahead of 30th anniversary

Producers reveal they are having to help bankroll cost of festival to ensure it goes ahead

Shetland Vikings will be in Edinburgh for the torchlight procession curtainraiser for the city's Hogmanay celebrations. Picture: Ian Georgeson

Organisers of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay festival have revealed that the event has reached a “crisis point” over its public funding as they claimed an additional half a million pounds is needed to secure its future.

The two firms who currently produce the event say they are having to bankroll part of the £4 million budget themselves due to the combined impact of rising costs and funding cuts over the last decade.

They have raised “alarm bells” over the future of the festival ahead of its 30th anniversary edition and claimed it is “under-valued” despite generating an £48 million in economic benefit from the current investment of around £1 million.

A torchlight procession will launch Edinburgh's Hogmanay festival again this year.

Unique Events and Assembly Festival, who are in the midst of a joint three-year contract with the city council, have suggested major free elements of the festival are under threat without a rethink of how the festival is paid for.

They have said the development and expansion of the event, including the return of international street theatre performances, is being held back by a lack of funding.

Leading figures behind the consortium suggested the Hogmanay event has run at a loss since a controversial decision by the city council to cut around £450,000 from its winter festivals budget in 2017.

Scottish Government support for the event is said to have dwindled over the last decade, with future planning hampered by the fact that applications for funding have to be made every year.

Edinburgh has been staging a Hogmanay festival since 1993. Picture: Keith Valentine

An overall attendance of more than 85,000 is expected across the forthcoming festival, which will be staged across four days for the first time since 2010-11.

The 2023-24 event will see a four-day programme of events staged in the Assembly Rooms for the first time and an expansion of the First Footin’ culture trail, which will run for six hours across 16 stages on New Year's Day.

The traditional torchlight procession curtain-raiser will be staged for the first time in four years, while the capacity of the street party will be raised by 10,000 to 50,000, including a “Concert in the Gardens” headline by Britpop giants Pulp, which will be broadcast into part of the main arena.

Unique Events director Al Thomson said: “The 30th anniversary is a really big deal for any festival or event.

The Assembly Rooms will be hosting four days of events during Edinburgh's Hogmanay festival. Picture: Roberto Ricciuti

“It wasn’t good for the event coming back from the pandemic that we weren’t able to do the torchlight procession last year.

“But bringing that back and introducing new events like the night afore concert and a big free programme on New Year’s Day has allowed us to get a really strong offering across the four days of the festival.

“We have to remember the dark days when Edinburgh was completely closed on New Year’s Day. It was a ghost town. Everything was shut, whereas now it's one of the busiest days of the year at places like Edinburgh Castle and the National Museum.

“Most people can’t leave Edinburgh on New Year’s Day. We have an audience that's there to be entertained. We want them to experience the best the city has to offer. But we are delivering the event at the most expensive time of the year in Edinburgh. All of our costs are at a premium.

Edinburgh's Hogmanay festival is being expanded into a four-day event for its 30th anniversary this year.

“When you get to events of our scale, the requirements that are needed to make sure everybody is safe can’t be scrimped on.

“We are in a very privileged position now because acts of that calibre want to come to Edinburgh and perform at the event because of the reputation that it has and the status they will get from being part of it.

“A recent public survey by the council found that most people wanted fireworks and live music to be part of the festival. But the price tag for those is only going to go up in future.”

The government only provides around a quarter of the council’s £800,000 annual grant for the event, which is said to have attracted a combined audience of more than 3.25 million since it was instigated in 1993-94.

Dani Rae, managing director at Assembly Festival, said: “Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is such a cultural explosion in a very short space of time. It packs a huge punch for Scotland and Edinburgh. To keep it as successful as it needs to be it needs more support.

“The bottom line for the festival is really tight at the moment. We’re doing it as Edinburgh-based companies and we love our city, but it is really hard-going.

“Funding unlocks other money for the event, because people see it as a stamp of approval. It shows the event is valued when it is properly supported.

“Culture is a human right. Without free events, not everybody can get to experience it. They are massively important and a big part of what the festival gives back to Edinburgh.”

Mr Thomson said: “The current budget for Hogmanay is in excess of £4m, but the available funding at the moment, which comes to just over £1m, has dropped by around 50 per cent compared to 10 years ago.

“We have come in to get the event back on its feet and re-establish it, but we are having to support it heavily financially, to the tune of around £250,000, to make sure it happens.

“The level of funding at the moment is at a crisis point now. The alarm bells are there.”

The most recent Hogmanay festival, which ran for three days, was valued at more than £48 million for the city’s economy, compared to the estimated £407 million generated by Edinburgh’s year-round festivals line-up.

Mr Thomson added: "The Scottish Government and the council know the importance of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay to the economy and the artists who are performing. The level of return for Scotland is huge.

“The event really needs an additional £500,000 to get things back to where they were.

"I definitely think Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is under-valued. All the festivals in the city are saying the same thing.“They all require more funding just to get to survival mode, let alone development and expansion.”