It’s a new year, but in Scotland’s capital people are once again asking if the powers that be have turned their back on locals.
The debate around whether tourists take precedence over residents in Edinburgh is well rehearsed. Anger at overcrowded streets, commercialisation of public spaces and pressures on infrastructure in one corner; the huge economic boost, job creation and a place on the world stage in the other.
It usually rears its head over the festive period, when large swathes of the city centre are taken over by expensive Christmas markets and closed off to public access during Hogmanay celebrations – prompting many who live here to avoid the area altogether throughout December.
But tensions reached a new high this time around after the city’s world-famous New Year’s Eve party was thrown into chaos.
With just 48 hours to go, organisers Unique Assembly announced on Sunday that high winds and forecasts of weather conditions worsening further meant the street party, outdoor concert in Princes Street Gardens and midnight firework display over Edinburgh Castle – due to be attended by 45,000 people – were all cancelled.
Festival boss Al Thomson said the stormy skies made building outdoor stages and safety infrastructure in time not possible, adding axing events was “not something that we take lightly”.
Ticketholders, especially those who had flown in from around the world to witness the spectacle, were left devastated, wandering the streets and without any plans. Insult was added to injury when threats of gale-force winds failed to materialise.
Some suggested that disappointed revellers take matters into their own hands and head up the Royal Mile to the Tron Kirk, where in years gone by – and centuries prior to the city centre’s Hogmanay celebrations becoming a ticketed affair – people would gather to drink, dance and bring in the bells.
But organisers who pulled the plug had other ideas.
A statement issued by Edinburgh Council on Tuesday evening urged people to “plan ahead and stay informed on weather and transport updates to ensure a safe night”.
In a move sparking outrage and bewilderment, Unique went a step further as a separate statement urged partiers “not to visit the city centre unless they are attending an event or venue”.
Whilst the intention was to ensure public safety, the idea of a private events company dictating where people should and shouldn’t go on New Year’s Eve after leaving revellers high and dry did not sit right with many.
Leading the criticism online, Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh reminisced of the “mad ones we had at the Tron [Kirk] with not a corporate buck in sight”.
He wrote in a post on X: “This is crazy from those fleecing bedwetters. Please – get out and give the streets back to the people.”
Finlay McFarlane, a councillor who represents the city centre, said it was “an outrageous and absurd thing to say”.
While being in support of a “formally organised Hogmanay”, the SNP politician, who sits on the council’s Culture and Communities Committee, said: “This projected idea of ‘ownership’ of public realm from an operator – that they even feel empowered to issue a message like that asking folk to stay away from the city centre – is an outrage.”
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McFarlane suggested the message had not been approved by council officials and said he would seek for answers over why the bizarre statement was issued.
Edinburgh-based writer and activist Jim Slaven added: “Citizens being told not to go into our own city centre on Hogmanay. As we have for generations. Because a corporation can’t profit from what they can’t control.”
Residents’ frustration at the capital’s renowned Hogmanay offerings is nothing new.
In fact, these concerns were laid bare to the council – which contributes over £800,000 a year to the running of Hogmanay events – just two years ago in a consultation prior to retendering of the contract.
Fewer than half (46%) of the 8,614 respondents said they had attended official Hogmanay celebrations, and the majority saw them as ‘being welcoming for tourists, but less likely to be welcoming to residents’.
Results showed the main reasons for people not attending Christmas and Hogmanay celebrations were ‘overcrowding, ‘designed for tourists’ and too expensive’ with many responses ‘focused on the central location and impact on residents’.
Aside from some performances and activities in the recent programme being staged in Portobello and Leith, it appears little has been done to increase affordability and spread events more evenly across the city more since the feedback was received in 2022.
Some have viewed the fiasco which unfolded this week as the final straw – and proof that Hogmanay in Edinburgh needs a rethink.
Independent city councillor Ross McKenzie highlighted the so-called traditional torchlight procession through the Old Town, which was also cancelled due to the weather, as emblematic of issues with the existing programme.
“We don’t have a traditional torchlight procession,” he said. “It’s a made-up thing to sell tickets to tourists. It’s empty, it’s vacuous, it’s devoid of culture or tradition.”
He said the council could instead use the £812,000 it budgets to support the four-day festival to “put on ceilidhs in communities across the city” and “tell tourists that if they want to go and experience a bit of Scottish Hogmanay, then here’s a list of 20 community centres where they’re having local events”.
Similarly Labour councillor Katrina Faccenda said: “The whole concept of what we are touting as tradition must be reviewed.”
Mr Thomson insisted that the “formula that has worked for more than 30 years” was the only way to keep people safe and ensure the capital retains its reputation for hosting the greatest Hogmanay Hootenanny on earth.
He said: “What has made Edinburgh’s Hogmanay globally recognised is the unique location. Street parties, concerts and fireworks take place in cities around the world.
“In Edinburgh it has always been about the setting. The midnight fireworks from the castle have always been the focal point.
“As soon as you have that, you have to put in the infrastructure and events to keep people safe and keep people entertained.”
Councillors, who will ultimately decide if the ‘formula’ is fit for the future, are unlikely to disagree with this.
However, they would be wise to reflect again on what the city’s taxpayers want from large-scale events they help to fund – or risk facing yet more accusations they canvass locals’ views only to then toss them in the bin.