This year’s Hogmanay programme includes the new Party at the Bells on Princes Street and the return of the iconic Edinburgh Castle fireworks display.
Tickets are on sale through the Edinburgh’s Hogmanay website for Party at the Bells, the Torchlight Procession and a fantastic Scottish music programme with Dougie McLean, Eddie Reader and Breabach at Greyfriars Kirk. As part of Party at the Bells, 7,500 tickets have been made available at a discounted price for EH postcode holders.
In 2021, Hogmanay celebrations have been reimagined and include:
- The Torchlight Procession will ignite Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations on Thursday, 30 December. Participants will collect their torches from three locations around the city: Waverley Bridge, West Parliament Square or Bristo Square and will then start the Procession on the Royal Mile between North Bridge and St Mary’s Street. The family friendly event will be slightly different to previous years, with the procession spread out between 4pm and 9pm, allowing locals and visitors alike to blaze through the Scottish capital in a fun and safe environment.
Along the procession route, flames and light installations will illuminate the experience. Underbelly are working with local Celtic Fire Theatre company Pyroceltica, who led the procession in 2019 and Double Take Projections. At the end of the Procession on Holyrood Park, participants will be asked to light a slow burning candle and then leave. As more and more candles are lit, an image will emerge over the course of the event, which will be filmed and streamed on edinburghshogmanay.com.
- Scottish Music Programme – Wednesday, 29 – Friday, 31 December. Taking place at Greyfriars Kirk. Performances include one of Scotland’s most skilled and imaginative contemporary folk acts, Breabach on 29 December, Scottish singer- songwriter, Dougie Maclean OBE on 30 December and three x BRIT Award winner, Eddi Reader OBE on 31 December.
- Party at the Bells – Friday, 31 December, 10pm-1am. A fresh take on the world-famous Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Street Party. This year the event will be for a reduced audience of 30,000 people to enjoy the countdown celebrations, starting at 10pm.
Artists this year are Basement Jaxx (DJ Set), supported by BBC Radio1 DJ, Arielle Free and will perform on the Ross Bandstand to 3,500 people in the gardens under the Castle, and will be streamed on to a series of screens to the audience on Princes Street.
The iconic midnight fireworks display will be back at Edinburgh Castle, cementing Scotland once again as the home of Hogmanay.
One of the world’s greatest street theatre companies, Netherlands-based Close-Act Theatre will collaborate with a variety of Scottish performers to animate the street in spectacular style.
50p from every Party at the Bells ticket sold will be donated to the Brain Tumour Charity, an organisation Underbelly raises money for year-round. Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer for children and adults under 40 and increased funding for research is desperately needed. Around 500 children and young people in the UK are diagnosed each year but diagnosis times for childhood brain tumours are longer in the UK than in many other countries.
- Message from the Skies from 1 January 2022. Edinburgh’s Hogmanay’s emblematic project that fuses the work of Scottish writers, artists and musicians will return from 1 January 2022.
Working closely with the City of Edinburgh Council and Scottish Government, Underbelly is meticulously planning Edinburgh’s Hogmanay in the context of Covid-19 and is dedicated to creating a safe and fun environment for the 2021 celebrations. Ticketholders for the Torchlight Procession and the Party at the Bells, who are aged 18 and over, will need to have a Covid-19 passport and to show it to enter the events.
As part of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay’s ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability, and alongside efforts to reduce the environmental impact of the festival itself, we are again inviting our audiences to offset their journey to Edinburgh’s Hogmanay in 2021. All donations to the environmental fund, which are calculated in accordance with the method of transport and length of journey, are made at the point of purchase when booking tickets and will be used to create new woodlands in Scotland in partnership with Forest Carbon. All woodlands are independently audited and certified under the UK Woodland Carbon Code.
Edinburgh is the world’s festival city with internationally renowned festivals year-round and Edinburgh’s Hogmanay kicks them off at the beginning of every year.
LISTING INFORMATION
Edinburgh’s Hogmanay 2021
29 December – 1 January
Torchlight Procession
30 December
Breabach, at Greyfriars Kirk
29 December
Dougie McLean, at Greyfriars Kirk
30 December
Eddi Reader, at Greyfriars Kirk
31 December
Party at the Bells
31 December – 1 January