This year’s sold-out Street Party hosted by Johnnie Walker was spectacular! From the moment the doors opened at 7.30pm, ‘til long after the midnight bells fell silent, bands and DJs, street artists, musicians and dancers from Scotland and across the UK created a party that will live long in the memories of the tens of thousands who gathered to bring in New Year in Edinburgh.
This year’s theme, Be Together, was celebrated by bringing together tens of thousands of friends old and new to share in a warm and welcoming moment of friendship creating a fantastic atmosphere across the Street Party.
Mark Ronson dazzled the partygoers with some of the best tracks of the decade in a full throttle count down to the midnight fireworks. Daniel Merriweather joined him for Stop Me and Shallow. DJ Rudimental played a banging set of their biggest, old skool hits and Mungo’s Hi Fi kicked off the night.
Headlining the Waverley Stage, the charismatic Marc Almond played his greatest hits. Opening the Waverley Stage Keir Gibson knocked it out the park, The Ninth Wave brought the glam and were proud to be representing Glasgow, and after the bells Porkpie put on a brassy and brilliant show.
Partying to the max at the Johnnie Walker Stage DJ The Great Calverto kicked off the night, followed by a throbbing set by Arielle Free which had the crowd going mad for it. The Mac Twins brought it home after the bells taking the party right through to 1am.
The new High Street Stage at Parliament Square opened with VanIves rocking it including a cover of Luther Vandross’s Never Too Much. Scotland’s finest continued with Idlewild who came out shouting ‘We are from Edinburgh’ to huge roars from the crowd, The Snuts got the crowd jumping with a high energy set and after the bells Shooglenifty lead the whole Street Party in a rousing rendition of Auld Lang Syne.
All around the arena spectacular street theatre entertained the audiences throughout the night from the stunning Picto Facto who opened the Street Party to the nimble dancing light puppets of Dundu and Close-Act Theatre’s quirky i-puppets. Gandini Juggling, Avant Garde Dance Company and PyroCeltica filled the podium stage with light and movement.
At the end of the night the lone piper Louise Marshall played out the party goers into a crisp clear night.
Visitors from 87 countries around the world joined the people of Edinburgh to celebrate New Year, including from Argentina, Australia, Bermuda, Brazil, China, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, USA and Vietnam.
After teaser fireworks on the hour, this year’s midnight moment saw almost 16,000 shots and hundreds of thousands of stars in every known firework colour flood into the clear night sky. Titanium Fireworks had worked with Mark Ronson to create the display set to a medley of some of his greatest hits including Uptown Funk feat. Bruno Mars, Stop Me with Daniel Merriweather, Bang Bang Bang with The Business Intl, Nothing Breaks Like A Heart and Electricity.
Johnnie Walker strode into the New Year with us giving party goers a premix Johnnie Walker and Elderflower highball cocktail to welcome in 2020.
The atmophere across the arena was friendly and upbeat welcoming in a new decade.
The first ever live stream of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay with 16 cameras feeding a live edit from around the arena captured the atmosphere and hosts The Mac Twins interviewed The Ninth Wave and The Snuts among others. Thousands watched it from all over the world joining from the USA, Italy, Canada, West Africa, Sweden, Australia as well as around Scotland and the UK.
Underbelly has just put a limited number of Street Party tickets for Edinburgh’s Hogmanay 20 on sale at an early bird rate £20.50 + £1.00 booking fee.
