All you need to know about Inverness's Hogmanay

Highland News & Media

Inverness is set to stage what is believed to be the largest Hogmanay ceilidh on the planet.

Transcript

00:00 So this holiday, we've turned things around a wee bit.

00:03 We're going to celebrate Highland culture and music

00:06 and we're going to have the biggest holiday,

00:08 Keighley, you could possibly imagine.

00:11 That Keighley is going to involve music, dancing, song

00:16 and take back what a real Keighley is.

00:18 And I suppose we're kind of stepping back in time, you know,

00:21 that sense of community, of people getting together

00:24 and celebrating what we are amazing at.

00:27 And in the Highlands, we are amazing at music and song

00:30 and dance and culture.

00:32 It's what we have oodles of here.

00:34 So this year for Folk Monet, we've got some of the best artists

00:39 that you could possibly imagine.

00:41 We've got everyone from Siobhan Nolan,

00:42 who is the BBC Radio 2 Folk Singer of the Year.

00:46 We have Ross Ainslie and Ali Hutton

00:49 from the Treacherous Orchestra.

00:51 We have Ewan Robertson from Breivik.

00:53 And we are delighted to announce

00:55 that we also have Noddy MacIvor from Skipperish,

00:58 who are going to interspace our Keighley with some great song.

01:02 Our Keighley bands are the great Hurro

01:06 who are well known throughout the Highlands

01:08 and really are one of the most sought after Keighley bands

01:12 in the whole of Scotland.

01:13 So they're going to lead our dancing.

01:15 We're going to have dance masters throughout the audience.

01:18 So if you can't quite remember those Gay Gordons

01:20 and those Strip the Willows from your school days,

01:23 we're going to have people on hand to help.

01:25 So what we're hoping is that this is going to be

01:27 one massive Highland Hogmanay fully.

01:31 What's the difference about this Hogmanay

01:32 compared to previous ones?

01:34 Well, actually, it still has the warm Highland welcome

01:39 that all the previous Hogmanays always had.

01:42 So we're keeping all the best bits

01:44 that we've had for many years now, which people love,

01:47 and building on them, building on the experience

01:50 that people want to have now when they come to an event.

01:53 They're not just going to be sung to,

01:55 they're going to be part of the event themselves.

01:58 So this is the great thing.

01:59 It will build on community involvement,

02:02 people socialising and doing what they want to do

02:05 on Hogmanay.

02:06 And where better to do it than in the Highlands

02:09 and in the capital of the Highlands in Inverness.

02:12 The aim of this Hogmanay is to make the audience

02:15 part of the event, to give them a sense of pride

02:18 in being part of something,

02:20 not just the spectacle that they've come to see,

02:23 but they can go away and talk to their friends

02:25 and talk to their family and say,

02:27 I took part, I took part, not just attended,

02:30 I took part in a real traditional Highland Hogmanay,

02:34 a real traditional ceilidh.

02:36 Would you say that these changes initiated

02:38 is a step forward of putting Inverness on the map?

02:42 I think it plays to the strength that the city has

02:44 as the city in the Highlands,

02:46 and that we have in the Highlands.

02:48 And it plays to our warmth, our camaraderie,

02:51 our welcoming nature, to welcome anyone from anywhere.

02:56 And I think that's the key message

02:57 that comes out of this Hogmanay.

02:59 There wasn't any status behind changing it up,

03:02 it was time.

03:03 And we just knew that if we didn't change,

03:07 it was just gonna go downhill.

03:09 And we can't afford to do that from a tourism perspective,

03:13 we've got to set the bar, and that's what we've done.

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