Rag’n’Bone Man Rings In New Year At 25th Edinburg Hogmanay

Some 75,000 people attended the traditional Edinburgh Hogmanay street party on Dec. 31, with some 10,000 holding tickets to see Rag’n’Bone Man at the city’s Princes Street Gardens. 

Ian Georgeson / Edinburgh’s Hogmanay via AP – Homananay Fireworks
Some 75,000 people attended Edinburgh’s Hogmanay with fireworks over Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, ringing in the New Year.

A regular event ticket got revelers onto Princes Street, where Hogmanay producer Underbelly had set up another three stages, hosting Sacred Paws, Niteworks, Human League, Barns Courtney, Colonel Mustard and the Dijon 5, Treacherous Orchestra, the Mac Twins and Huey Morgan.

To gain access to Princes Street Gardens and see Rag’n’Bone Man as well as support acts Nina Nesbitt and Declan McKenna, one needed a different ticket. The 10,000 available spaces sold out in advance.

For the first time in the Hogmanay’s 25-year history, the fireworks were choreographed to a specially commissioned soundscape created by the band Niteworks and sound designer/film composer Dan Jones in collaboration with fireworks experts Titanium.

After the fireworks, Rag’n’Bone Man took a stage one more time, albeit outside the Gardens, to strike up the English new year’s classic Auld Lang Syne and have 75,000 chime in. 

“What a special way to ring in 2018,” said Underbelly directors Charlie Wood and Ed Bartlam, who produce Edinburgh’s Hogmanay on behalf of the city’s council, adding, “without a doubt this was the best party ever.”