Torchlit processions, fireworks, lasers, concerts, cannons and ceilidhs … Edinburgh’s annual new year celebrations are some of the biggest in the world. They span several crowded, fun-packed days and nights and draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city’s streets for a series of giant parties. This year, however, Hogmanay is going online for the first time and a new virtual programme will feature one of the UK’s largest-ever drone shows.
Charlie Wood and Ed Bartlam are directors of the entertainment company Underbelly, which has produced Edinburgh’s Hogmanay since 2017, along with parts of the fringe and other major UK festivals. They described their plans for this year’s “proudly Scottish” celebration: “With 2020 being the year it has been, we want to ring out the old year and hurry in the new year, with a message of hope at a world-class event.”
The event consists of three short films, streamed free at 7pm on 29, 30 and 31 December. In the films, a swarm of 150 glowing LED drones dance in the wintry Scottish skies above the Highlands, with later footage of the Forth bridges and Edinburgh. Celestial, the company behind the drone show, advertises its displays as a “dynamic, safe and green alternative to carbon-intensive fireworks”. The lights, moving at up to 25mph, are choreographed to create words and symbols, birds, animals and mythical creatures, designed by Edinburgh-based artist Gary Wilson.
The images illustrate a new poem called Fare Well by Scots Makar (the name given to Scotland’s poet laureate) Jackie Kay. The punning title links the ideas of saying “Good riddance” to the old year with the hope of heading healthily into 2021.
Narrators range from David Tennant to nine-year-old Miren from Glasgow. Niteworks, a band from the Isle of Skye who fuse traditional Scottish sounds with electronica, are providing the atmospheric music. With composer Dan Jones, they created the stirring soundtrack for Edinburgh’s 2018 Hogmanay fireworks.
On the Hogmanay website, edinburghshogmanay.com, where the films will air, it is possible to catch a preview of a saltire drone cross over darkened hills while Tennant reads lines from Kay’s poem:
“We say Wha’s like us, singing Auld Lang’s Syne.
We share the planet’s air. What’s yours is mine.”
Other virtual events
There are plenty of other New Year’s Eve options available this year, and you don’t need to be anywhere near them. Manchester nightclub the Haçienda is planning a 24-hour house party via United We Stream. The fireworks over Sydney harbour are still going ahead and New York’s Times Square ball drop will be streamed around the world.
Korean boyband BTS are part of a big K-pop new year show near Seoul (£27) and huge festivals, such as Belgium’s Tomorrowland, are ending a largely-live-streamed 2020 with new year events (€20). Beatboxer SK Shlomo is hosting a charity dance-a-thon. At-home participants in this free interactive online party from 8pm on New Year’s Eve will count their steps, aiming for a collective total of 577 million to earn the event its title Rave to the Moon.
Meanwhile, a virtual Jean-Michel Jarre is giving a virtual concert in Notre Dame and YouTube has a stellar international lineup to say Hello 2021.
