Brian Ferguson speaks to Edinburgh's Hogmanay festival directors Dani Rae and Al Thomson on the cancellation of the city's outdoor new year events
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00:00Okay, Danny Ray and Al Thomson, you've called off the main events in this Hug My Festival.
00:10Just give us some of the explanation of why you've had to take this decision and when
00:14you've taken the decision.
00:15Yeah, it's never an easy decision to make and again, the weather that we've experienced
00:20here in the city over the last 24 hours and the forecast for the next 24 hours, it's just
00:26not been possible for us to build not only the performance infrastructure that we require
00:30but also the safety infrastructure to accommodate 50,000 people in the city centre.
00:35So not a decision that's taken lightly by any means but our inability to actually build
00:39the event safely and deliver that within the time period for tomorrow night, it's just
00:45not possible.
00:46Was that the overriding thing rather than the predicted conditions in the city centre
00:50tonight and tomorrow night at the outdoor events?
00:54All a factor.
00:55I mean, even tomorrow, if we'd been able to get some of the infrastructure built tomorrow
00:58night, the winds that are forecast again tomorrow to build, we probably would have been taking
01:02a lot of that stuff down, possibly not being able to use screens, PA towers and once you
01:06lose that kind of entertainment and people don't have things to do within the city centre,
01:11it's not a good experience and again, we wouldn't have been able to do that anyway because we
01:14haven't been able to build the stages and safety infrastructure at this stage.
01:17How important was it to try and give people as much notice as possible that the major
01:22outdoor events were not happening?
01:25Really important, really.
01:26I think given that the weather forecast was changing so often and then it suddenly wasn't,
01:31being able to make sure that people who may still be yet to travel into the city could
01:36stay home or go out and make other plans, it's hugely important for us and for some
01:41of our suppliers as well to be able to save on that and hold back.
01:47How much of a blow is it for the Hogmanay Festival but also the city's reputation for
01:52putting on world-class events at this time of year?
01:55Well we're still putting on world-class events, just some of them are indoor.
02:00I think that's the important thing to get across is that they're first putting on New
02:04Year's Day, we'll still be there, a big free event for people to come and play with us
02:07across Lee Thatchers and out at Portobello as well.
02:13It's been over 20 years since we had a cancellation at Inverse Hogmanay.
02:17It recovered, it's still as popular as ever, we just had our 30th anniversary.
02:21We are still in a recovery mode again post-Covid but again, these things happen, sometimes
02:26the weather is kind and sometimes it's not and unfortunately the extremities of this
02:30year just haven't made the outdoor events possible but there's another 15 events, indoor
02:35events that are taking place, we have a sold-out event tonight here at the Assembly Rooms.
02:40Before Kayleigh's, first putting on New Year's Day is free to everyone in 17 venues throughout
02:44the city centre so there's still a lot for people to enjoy, there's a really good buzz
02:48in the city with the visitors still here but again, the bars, the clubs, the attractions
02:52all have things happening over the next 24 hours so people can still have a good time
02:56in Edinburgh.
02:57It's not like the city centre is going to shut down, that people will be able to come
03:01into the city centre and also move about the city centre, is that like that?
03:04Yeah absolutely, the trams are running and the buses are still doing their thing so yeah,
03:08if you want to come out and put the right clothing on, you'll be still able to have
03:12a good home run.
03:13Can you tell us a little bit more about some of the events that are going to be happening
03:16on New Year's Day?
03:18Yeah, we have a really lovely programme again for first footing, again it starts at, well
03:22half past 12 this year down in Portobello, we're having a family Kayleigh indoors in
03:26the Town Hall so again we're encouraging people to come along to that, that lasts all afternoon
03:30but again, at 2 o'clock in the city centre, we have 15 venues, St Giles Cathedral with
03:36Queen Boulevard is going to be a real highlight, Valtos unfortunately who are going to be playing
03:40tomorrow night at the street party, they are going to be playing indoors on New Year's
03:44Day so there's still a chance for people to come and see them on New Year's Day for free
03:48in Greyfriars Church but again, go on to the website, find the first footing map and explore
03:54the city, discover some amazing music.
03:56Question for you both, where does this cancellation leave the future of this festival, there was
04:01a lot of soul searching, the last time, two cancellations in the space of 3 or 4 years
04:06but where do you think the festival goes from here and how can it recover from this?
04:12I mean I think we take the time to gather our skirts and figure out what comes next
04:18but there's an exercise in insurance and how that all works but ultimately as I said, the
04:24weather is kind some years, the weather is unkind other years so hopefully we can...
04:29The question was there, post Covid as well, the festival had had a 3 year gap and again
04:35there was still a question mark of whether it would still be popular, whether people
04:38would still come to visit, we brought it back, they've been coming, it's been selling out,
04:43visitors still coming from all around the world in their tens of thousands so people
04:48still want to spend Ogbenay and Edinburgh and again, hopefully next year we'll be able
04:52to deliver that for them as well.
04:54Will the city and the event need a bit more help from the Scottish Government and the
04:57council to reboot it next year?
05:01Yeah I think that's an important part, I mean we've not hidden the fact that again with
05:06lots of other festivals, the current funding situation across the cultural sector needs
05:13addressing and again, with additional support, we can actually make Ogbenay evolve and develop.
05:20We need to keep it going, if we want to keep that momentum and keep people coming back,
05:23we want to create new events, we want to have new attractions, so we look forward to having
05:28those discussions in the new year.
05:30What is the situation for anyone who's bought tickets for any of the events, will they be
05:33fully refunded?
05:34Yeah, our customer service team will be in touch with all ticket buyers in due course.
05:39Can you give us a rough idea finally of how many tickets have been pre-sold across all
05:44the events?
05:45I mean we had 40,000 tickets that were sold for yesterday, so 40,000, I wish, but we're
05:52not quite there yet.
05:53We had 40,000 tickets that were sold for the 31st outdoor event, so again, they were close
05:59to selling out.
06:00I think if we'd had a good run of weather as well, we would have had another sell out
06:03year, but all those people will be contacted and again refunds will be made in due course.