Top acts set to play Edinburgh on New Year’s Day

A HOST of Scotland’s leading musical acts will be staging free shows across Edinburgh on New Year’s Day, organises of the capital’s Hogmanay festivities have confirmed.

One-off shows are to be held in 11 secret Old Town venues, with Roddy Hart, King Creosote and Withered Hand all due to appear.

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Special collaborations are being created with the Hebridean Celtic Festival on the Isle of Lewis, the Woodend Barn arts venue in Aberdeenshire, musicians on the Isle of Mull, and the underground Edinburgh cabaret night Neu Reekie.

Revellers will be sent by random to one of the venues after turning up for a pre-allocated time slot at the National Museum of Scotland for what is billed as “Scotland’s biggest free festival.”

The Scot:lands event, one of the major elements of the capital’s three-day Hogmanay celebrations, is bankrolled to the tune of £200,000 by the Scottish Government.

Culture secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “Edinburgh’s Hogmanay festival is a perfect example of how we can promote all that is best about Scotland.”

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