29 to 31 Dec 2026
Buy your Street Party ticket before you book flights. It is the part of Hogmanay that sells out, and without one you see the New Year in outside the barriers.
29 to 31 Dec 2026. Times are approximate and can change from year to year.
Street theatre and fire performers warm up the crowd in the Meadows. The procession sets off at 7.30pm.
Scots for the night before. The Scottish rock band The Fratellis play in Princes Street Gardens, below the castle.
Princes Street opens to ticket holders, with music and food along its length.
A concert in West Princes Street Gardens, topped by the electronic band Underworld. It needs its own ticket: a Street Party ticket does not cover it.
The fireworks go up at midnight while Underworld play the countdown live from the gardens' main stage.
Princes Street becomes one long party on the last night of the year, with stages, DJs, pipers and drummers, street theatre and funfair rides for 45,000 ticket holders. Edinburgh Castle stands on its rock just above the street.
Two nights earlier the festival opens with the Torchlight Procession, led by pipe bands and a squad dressed as Vikings from Shetland's Up Helly Aa fire festival. The route runs from the Meadows, a park south of the Old Town, to the foot of the castle.
On 29 December you can carry a torch yourself. Buy at least one torch for every two walkers, with a wristband for anyone not carrying one, and collect them from early afternoon. The walk takes about 45 minutes.
Carry your own drink into the Street Party if you like, in cans or plastic bottles, up to four per person and none over 500ml. Glass and umbrellas are not allowed, bags are searched at the gate, and once you leave you cannot get back in.
With no ticket, walk ten minutes from Princes Street up Calton Hill, a hill in the city centre. From the top you look straight across at the castle, so be there by 10pm for a place to stand and bring a flask of something hot.
The New Town, just north of Princes Street, puts every event within a short walk, and so does the Old Town. Book a room for these nights months ahead.
Where to base yourself, and what else is on
The Edinburgh guide has the rest of the city.
Sixteen days of beer tents and brass bands on a Munich meadow. Get there on a weekday morning and a bench is yours without a booking.
Lima's purple month: a float carried through the old centre from dawn into the night on five days in October.