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Thursday, Jul 10, 2025

Scotland prepares for Hogmanay celebrations

Scotland prepares for Hogmanay celebrations

Scotland is preparing to welcome 2023 with large scale events for the first time in three years.

Street parties, bonfires, fireworks and torchlit processions will bring in the New Year across the country.

In Edinburgh, alongside the capital's street party the Pet Shop Boys will headline the Hogmanay concert in Princes Street Gardens.

About 30,000 people are expected to attend the party, in a scaled back event from the 60,000 of past years.

Neil Tennant, of the Pet Shop Boys, told BBC Scotland: "It's a really exciting show to play, when you get here you realise Hogmanay is a big deal in Edinburgh.

"We played it first nine years ago and it was just a fantastic audience, it's an amazing site with the castle above you and everyone's there to have a good time."

The duo have another tour planned for 2023, including their first Aberdeen gig in decades.


The Pet Shop Boys last played at Edinburgh's Hogmanay party in 2013

In Edinburgh, revellers will also be able to become part of the Hogmanay show with illuminated LED wristbands.

The wristbands are connected to the sound system, allowing people to create patterns in time with music played.

Organisers said all events on 31 December have sold out, including the candlelit concert in St Giles' Cathedral and the Festival of Ceilidhs Countdown to Hogmanay.

Meanwhile, the Edinburgh torchlit procession that traditionally kicks off Hogmanay and the New Year's "Loony Dook" at South Queensferry have both been cancelled.

A "Portobello Dook" organised by the community will instead allow people to welcome in the new year with a cold swim.

Although Edinburgh's procession is cancelled, other towns will welcome the new year with fire


In other parts of Scotland, Glasgow will celebrate with the Ashton Lane Street Party, featuring a live band, indoor and outdoor bars and fireworks.

There is also a party at the city's Merchant Square with performances from the French Fling Showgirls, Scott & The Fox and The Riffreshers.

In Aberdeen, locals can head to a Hogmanay ceilidh at the Beach Ballroom with music from the Hipflask Ceilidh Band.

Stirling has a series of events lined up, including live music at the Albert Halls, a ceilidh at the Tolbooth, and fireworks above the National Wallace Monument.

Scotland's largest free Hogmanay celebration takes place in Inverness, with the Red Hot Highland Fling providing live music.

It is hosted by stand-up comedian Fred MacAulay on the banks of the River Ness in Northern Meeting Park.

The tradition in Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire sees locals wield fire to ward off unwelcome spirits.

Around 40 men and women will be led by a piper up and down the High Street swinging fireballs around their heads just before midnight.

The tradition, which has been celebrated for more than 100 years, began as a cleansing ritual to burn off any bad spirits lingering from the old year to bring in a pure New Year.

Thousands of people turn out to see the fireworks in Edinburgh every year


Biggar, in South Lanarkshire, will also welcome in the New Year with fire.

Locals gradually add to a large pile of wood in the town centre in the weeks before Hogmanay, before it is lit in the hours leading up to the midnight countdown.

In Comrie, Perthshire, tall torches are set alight and paraded around the village at midnight.

The Comrie Flambeaux will be accompanied by music and people in fancy dress before the remnants of the torches are thrown into the River Earn.

After a Hogmanay ceilidh in Dufftown in Moray, people gather in The Square for the bells.

Drams of whisky and pieces of shortbread are distributed for midnight countdown, courtesy of the local Glenfiddich distillery and Walkers biscuit factory.

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