THOUSANDS of tickets and passes for this year's Hogmanay celebrations in Edinburgh were left unsold, organisers admitted yesterday.
Around 5,500 of the £20-a-head "party packs", which guaranteed entry to the flagship event, were not bought, despite having been on sale for almost three months.
Officials have also admitted that a major ceilidh event in East Princes Street Ga
rdens, costing £37.50, was just over half full.
It is understood that the easy availability of regular tickets for the street party – costing £5 – significantly reduced demand.
The news has again cast doubt on the popularity of the event, which has been damaged by poor weather, funding problems and the withdrawal of a leading sponsor.
In recent years, tickets for the street party typically sold out by October. But this year, the general allocation of 57,500 tickets was not taken up until 27 December. The Hogmanay party packs are usually the only way of securing a last-minute ticket for the street party.
Last year, just 500 packs were unsold, while similar packages have been snapped up well in advance in previous years.
Although the council and the police have insisted that the crowds in the party arena were only marginally short of the event's 100,000-strong capacity, poor ticket sales are expected to leave the council with a major financial headache.
The majority of passes for the street party were free when the Hogmanay celebrations were made all-ticket in 1997. An administration charge of £2.50 was introduced in 2004-5 in the wake of the first cancellation of the event, and the fee was increased to £5 last year. Only a late surge in demand – partly triggered by the announcement that the X Factor winner Leon Jackson was to appear – ensured they were all sold.
The council has revealed just 12,000 of the party packs were sold out of a possible 17,500, while just 3,000 of the 5,500 tickets for the ceilidh in the Gardens event were sold.
The Scotsman understands there was also a poor take-up of free tickets traditionally offered to local residents, hotels and other businesses inside the street-party arena.
Outwith the arena, tickets for the gala Hogmanay ball at the Assembly Rooms, which in previous years were snapped up within a few hours, were not sold out until just before Christmas. Just 230 of the 450 tickets for a new indoor party at the Queen's Hall were sold, despite the cost being cut from £60 to £45 due to poor sales. Slow ticket sales will be a key factor in a review of the event the council is to carry out over the next few months.
The council has to find £750,000 in its next budget to fill a gap created by the Scottish Government's decision to scrap dedicated funding for festivals through a "cities growth fund", while the event is currently lacking a headline sponsor.
One senior council source said "there was no question" ticket demand was down this year. However, Steve Cardownie, deputy leader of Edinburgh city council, said: "We're thrilled with the turnout this year and any suggestions that the party is over for Edinburgh's Hogmanay are unfounded."
Simon Williams, head of the Edinburgh Principal Hotels Association, said: "Bookings were well down on previous years and I noticed that a lot of hotels were still advertising availability on the day.
"There were a variety of factors, including the cancellation the previous year, the economic downturn and a trend in people wanting to book trips later, but it would be a mistake to consider scaling anything back."
The full article contains 614 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
