ORGANISERS of Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations are doubling the price of tickets for the event – for the second time in three years.
Revellers will now be charged £10 for passes, which were free until just four years ago.
Council officials insist the charge is the only way to ensure Edinburgh is able to stage a full four-day programme of New Year events. They have also blamed t
he rising costs of staging the street party, the bill for which reached £1.6 million last year.
Tickets were introduced after hundreds of people were treated in hospital as a result of overcrowding.
The original £2.50 fee, in the wake of the cancellation of the 2003-4 street party, was doubled for the 2006-7 party, which was also axed after falling victim to bad weather.
The council, which puts £1.3 million into the winter festivals, was left with a £300,000 hangover from the last Hogmanay celebrations, after failing to sell about 10,000 £20-a-head membership packs and "ceilidh in the gardens" tickets.
The price of this year's membership package will be cut to £17, while the first 10,000 street-party tickets will be sold at half-price.
Problems paying for the event have been heightened since the withdrawal of RBS as title sponsor last year. The cancellation of two of the previous four street parties was largely blamed for the slow take-up of tickets last year.
When charges were first made in 2004-5, tickets sold out by early November. Last year they were still available until 27 December – meaning there was no need to join the £20 scheme until then.
The full article contains 283 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
