Edinburgh's Hogmanay outdoor events cancelled

The Scotsman

Brian Ferguson speaks to Edinburgh's Hogmanay festival directors Dani Rae and Al Thomson on the cancellation of the city's outdoor new year events

Transcript

00:00Okay, Danny Ray and Al Thomson, you've called off the main events in this Hug My Festival.

00:10Just give us some of the explanation of why you've had to take this decision and when

00:14you've taken the decision.

00:15Yeah, it's never an easy decision to make and again, the weather that we've experienced

00:20here in the city over the last 24 hours and the forecast for the next 24 hours, it's just

00:26not been possible for us to build not only the performance infrastructure that we require

00:30but also the safety infrastructure to accommodate 50,000 people in the city centre.

00:35So not a decision that's taken lightly by any means but our inability to actually build

00:39the event safely and deliver that within the time period for tomorrow night, it's just

00:45not possible.

00:46Was that the overriding thing rather than the predicted conditions in the city centre

00:50tonight and tomorrow night at the outdoor events?

00:54All a factor.

00:55I mean, even tomorrow, if we'd been able to get some of the infrastructure built tomorrow

00:58night, the winds that are forecast again tomorrow to build, we probably would have been taking

01:02a lot of that stuff down, possibly not being able to use screens, PA towers and once you

01:06lose that kind of entertainment and people don't have things to do within the city centre,

01:11it's not a good experience and again, we wouldn't have been able to do that anyway because we

01:14haven't been able to build the stages and safety infrastructure at this stage.

01:17How important was it to try and give people as much notice as possible that the major

01:22outdoor events were not happening?

01:25Really important, really.

01:26I think given that the weather forecast was changing so often and then it suddenly wasn't,

01:31being able to make sure that people who may still be yet to travel into the city could

01:36stay home or go out and make other plans, it's hugely important for us and for some

01:41of our suppliers as well to be able to save on that and hold back.

01:47How much of a blow is it for the Hogmanay Festival but also the city's reputation for

01:52putting on world-class events at this time of year?

01:55Well we're still putting on world-class events, just some of them are indoor.

02:00I think that's the important thing to get across is that they're first putting on New

02:04Year's Day, we'll still be there, a big free event for people to come and play with us

02:07across Lee Thatchers and out at Portobello as well.

02:13It's been over 20 years since we had a cancellation at Inverse Hogmanay.

02:17It recovered, it's still as popular as ever, we just had our 30th anniversary.

02:21We are still in a recovery mode again post-Covid but again, these things happen, sometimes

02:26the weather is kind and sometimes it's not and unfortunately the extremities of this

02:30year just haven't made the outdoor events possible but there's another 15 events, indoor

02:35events that are taking place, we have a sold-out event tonight here at the Assembly Rooms.

02:40Before Kayleigh's, first putting on New Year's Day is free to everyone in 17 venues throughout

02:44the city centre so there's still a lot for people to enjoy, there's a really good buzz

02:48in the city with the visitors still here but again, the bars, the clubs, the attractions

02:52all have things happening over the next 24 hours so people can still have a good time

02:56in Edinburgh.

02:57It's not like the city centre is going to shut down, that people will be able to come

03:01into the city centre and also move about the city centre, is that like that?

03:04Yeah absolutely, the trams are running and the buses are still doing their thing so yeah,

03:08if you want to come out and put the right clothing on, you'll be still able to have

03:12a good home run.

03:13Can you tell us a little bit more about some of the events that are going to be happening

03:16on New Year's Day?

03:18Yeah, we have a really lovely programme again for first footing, again it starts at, well

03:22half past 12 this year down in Portobello, we're having a family Kayleigh indoors in

03:26the Town Hall so again we're encouraging people to come along to that, that lasts all afternoon

03:30but again, at 2 o'clock in the city centre, we have 15 venues, St Giles Cathedral with

03:36Queen Boulevard is going to be a real highlight, Valtos unfortunately who are going to be playing

03:40tomorrow night at the street party, they are going to be playing indoors on New Year's

03:44Day so there's still a chance for people to come and see them on New Year's Day for free

03:48in Greyfriars Church but again, go on to the website, find the first footing map and explore

03:54the city, discover some amazing music.

03:56Question for you both, where does this cancellation leave the future of this festival, there was

04:01a lot of soul searching, the last time, two cancellations in the space of 3 or 4 years

04:06but where do you think the festival goes from here and how can it recover from this?

04:12I mean I think we take the time to gather our skirts and figure out what comes next

04:18but there's an exercise in insurance and how that all works but ultimately as I said, the

04:24weather is kind some years, the weather is unkind other years so hopefully we can...

04:29The question was there, post Covid as well, the festival had had a 3 year gap and again

04:35there was still a question mark of whether it would still be popular, whether people

04:38would still come to visit, we brought it back, they've been coming, it's been selling out,

04:43visitors still coming from all around the world in their tens of thousands so people

04:48still want to spend Ogbenay and Edinburgh and again, hopefully next year we'll be able

04:52to deliver that for them as well.

04:54Will the city and the event need a bit more help from the Scottish Government and the

04:57council to reboot it next year?

05:01Yeah I think that's an important part, I mean we've not hidden the fact that again with

05:06lots of other festivals, the current funding situation across the cultural sector needs

05:13addressing and again, with additional support, we can actually make Ogbenay evolve and develop.

05:20We need to keep it going, if we want to keep that momentum and keep people coming back,

05:23we want to create new events, we want to have new attractions, so we look forward to having

05:28those discussions in the new year.

05:30What is the situation for anyone who's bought tickets for any of the events, will they be

05:33fully refunded?

05:34Yeah, our customer service team will be in touch with all ticket buyers in due course.

05:39Can you give us a rough idea finally of how many tickets have been pre-sold across all

05:44the events?

05:45I mean we had 40,000 tickets that were sold for yesterday, so 40,000, I wish, but we're

05:52not quite there yet.

05:53We had 40,000 tickets that were sold for the 31st outdoor event, so again, they were close

05:59to selling out.

06:00I think if we'd had a good run of weather as well, we would have had another sell out

06:03year, but all those people will be contacted and again refunds will be made in due course.

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