Hogmanay tourists having to quickly find alternatives to cancelled fireworks
One disappointed tourist said they tried to get tickets back to London because the fireworks were still happening there.
With hours to go before the end of 2024, tourists who travelled to Edinburgh in the hope of experiencing the Hogmanay fireworks have described having to quickly find other ways to celebrate the new year.
The street party and fireworks display over Edinburgh Castle were cancelled on Monday afternoon due to a Met Office yellow weather warning, which at the time covered most of Scotland throughout Hogmanay before the warning area was cut back to the Highlands and Moray.
A yellow weather warning for wind covers central and southern Scotland and northern England until 11pm on Hogmanay, with winds predicted to reach up to 70mph.
Organisers Unique Assembly said on Monday the weather at the time meant it was not possible to do the preparations.
Elisa Dorris, who is originally from Spain but now lives in Dublin, flew to Edinburgh with friends in order to see the fireworks.
The 23-year-old shop assistant described having to ask around for suggestions as to what she and her friends can do to celebrate the new year.
“We are very disappointed … but we will try to have fun here in the Christmas market,” she said.
“We will try our best to have fun this night.
“So we have been asking people about what we can do, and they say that they have pubs in Victoria Street, and the people are going to go out, because it’s a lot of people in the same situation.
“So we think that we are going to do that, stay in the streets, in the pubs.”
David Liew, a 59-year-old lawyer from Singapore who came to Edinburgh for New Year during a three-week holiday in the UK, said he was just going to “walk around.”
“We’ll just walk around, you know, we see a lot of lights, a lot of stores.
“We’ll just walk around, take some pictures and hopefully make the best use of our time.”
Mr Liew added that he could understand the decision to call off the fireworks, but said they should be put back on now that the weather had turned out better than expected.
“We are pretty disappointed. We were just informed, I think, this morning, but I think it’s due to the weather.
“But when I look around now, I think the weather is fine, and I think the celebrations should resume.”
This was echoed by Silvana Sgro, from Melbourne in Australia, who “reconfigured” a three-week holiday in Europe so that she and her children could be in Edinburgh on Hogmanay.
The 54-year-old said: “Apparently we get a refund, but it doesn’t change what we do this evening.
“I am not sure what we’ll be doing at midnight.
“We booked accommodation that was very central and more expensive so that we could see it all, and now don’t have anything to look at, just looking at each other I guess.
“This is a lovely evening, but it’s not the same.
“We did think about going back to London, because apparently the fireworks are on in London, but couldn’t get tickets.”
