The Edinburgh Minute ⏰: Friday 29 December 2023 - Monday 1 January 2024
Hogmanay tourist tax bid, Loony Dook locations, candlelit concert, a 4,000-person silent disco, Leithienda, Sprogmanay + Culture Minute New Year events special
🎆 Good morning Edinburgh. Here’s Friday’s Edinburgh Minute followed by a Culture Minute Hogmanay weekend special for paying subscribers.
⮑ This is the last Edinburgh Minute of the year. I’d like to say a huge and sincere thank you to everybody who has supported in any way in 2023, whether that’s by paying, sharing or contributing items for inclusion. You’ve helped take this from just an idea this time last year into something that a lot of people appreciate and find useful. I could gush more about why the Minute has succeeded so far, but in the interests of brevity: I’m really proud that it’s making local news easier to find and I hope everyone who’s helped feels proud too. It’s been a real community effort. Onwards to 2024!
💰 Hogmanay organisers have backed calls for a new tourist tax to help the cash-strapped council. Bill Burdett-Coutts of Assembly said ‘a tourist tax is a good idea’ in response to council leader Cammy Day’s appeal to the Scottish Government to speed up proposed legislation. - Severin Carrell, The Guardian.
⮑ Independent councillor Ross McKenzie shared a thread on Twitter claiming that Hogmanay has become ‘an expensive party for other people.’
⮑ McKenzie was questioning figures in councillor Val Walker’s piece in the Evening News, which states: ‘Hogmanay contributes tens of millions of pounds to the city’s economy every year, providing boosts to local businesses and residents’.
👍/👎 VOTE: Where do you stand?
🚗 A car got stuck on the new big pavement step on Greenside Lane last night. It’s the second time in just over a week that a car has fallen victim to the drop. - Reddit.
🚉 A new train station connecting Edinburgh with Winchburgh has been backed by Edinburgh’s council transport leader. Scott Arthur shared plans for the west of the city, showing that thousands of new houses will also require increased bus and tram services.
🎾 A new £4.5 million indoor tennis centre has opened for public bookings at Heriot-Watt University’s Oriam centre. - Bill Lothian, The Edinburgh Reporter.
🎁 A Broomhouse woman who organised a Christmas party for 100 local children has been described as ‘an angel’ by locals. Donna Squires, who also helps to run the local I Love Broomhouse Facebook page, spoke to Jacob Farr of Edinburgh Live.
🏊 This weekend’s Edinburgh Leisure venue timetables are here.
📬 If you’ve enjoyed this first year of The Edinburgh Minute and want to show appreciation, the biggest way you can help is by subscribing, sharing the newsletter with your pals or sending a gift subscription. It would help keep this going strong in 2024. I’m already ready for another year of 5am starts to write this each day! Thanks again for your support this year ✌️
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📌 As of this morning (Friday) there are still some tickets available for the Summerhall Hogmanay ‘off the street’ party on Sunday night between 9pm and 3am. The Soul Foundation will be playing live. They say: “The Royal Dick pub will still be open, should you fancy a cosy breather from the night’s festivities, as well as a photo booth and glitter stall to really add some sparkle to your evening.” - Tickets and details are here.
📌 “Edinburgh Rugby take on Glasgow Warriors on Saturday 30 December at Scottish Gas Murrayfield. With four live music acts - PG Ciarletta, Littlest Chicken with TUATH, Wrest and Bleeker - and electric rugby action it's the perfect way to kick-off your Hogmanay celebrations.” - Thank you to the team at Edinburgh Rugby for getting in touch with this. Tickets for the weekend’s game are available here.
📌 Timetables have been published for trains between Edinburgh and the Borders over Hogmanay. - Border Telegraph.
📌 Leith’s Out of the Blue Drill Hall has its final Flea Market of the year on Saturday between 10am and 3pm.
📌 Edinburgh-based Gaelic singer Marcas Mac an Tuairneir has seen one of his songs have a festive resurgence. 'Silhouette' has amassed more than 15,000 streams on Spotify during Christmas week alone. Old Town-based Marcas was shortlisted for Gaelic Singer of the Year at the 2022 Scots Trad Music Awards for his album Speactram, recorded and produced at Watercolour Music with Nick Turner and Mary Ann Kennedy. Silhouette and Speactram can be heard here.
🪩 The Culture Minute: Hogmanay 2023/24 special
Welcome to the 26th edition of the Culture Minute, a weekly round-up of Edinburgh’s local creative scene. It’s for paying subscribers only, so thank you for supporting this. This week it’s a Hogmanay special containing everything local that I could find or received from readers this week, in chronological order, including a huge amount of free New Year’s Day events.
⮑ There are 14 ‘official’ events across four days in the official Edinburgh’s Hogmanay programme. - See them all here.
📆 Friday 29 December
🔥 The Torchlight Procession begins at the Meadows from 6pm on Friday. 20,000 people will be led by Shetland’s Up Helly Aa Jarl Squad. Torches will be available to collect from 2pm. - Tickets and more details are here. And here’s the route map:
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