World has a blast as revellers forget woes and welcome in New Year

MILLIONS of revellers around the world cast concerns about global recession and other worries to one side as wild celebrations were held to welcome the New Year.

New Zealand was the first country to celebrate 2009, which started at 11am GMT, while Australia followed close behind at 1pm with its biggest ever firework display over Sydney Harbour – detonating 5.5 tonnes of pyrotechnics to cheers from a crowd of more than a million people.

In Tokyo, volunteers stirred huge pots of New Year's rice-cake soup, pitched tents and doled out blankets and clothing to the needy.

In Edinburgh, Aussies and Kiwis decided to start the city's Hogmanay celebrations early to coincide with their home countries' New Year. Hundreds of eager partygoers descended on Edinburgh's Walkabout Australian-themed bar and the Jongleurs Comedy Club upstairs.

Casey Cavanagh, 24, from New Zealand, was celebrating with her mother Helen, boyfriend Dallas Peters, 28, and cousin Rachel, 25.

She said: "We live in Edinburgh at the moment so we lucked-out at having the best place to go for New Year. My mum's up visiting so we're all having a really good time and enjoying the whole day."

Elsewhere, Suzanne Williams, 25, and friends Stacey Cox, 24, and Laura Cicchiello, 19, awaited the turn of the Aussies to celebrate, at 1pm GMT.

She said: "We all live in London and wanted a big New Year. We heard that Edinburgh is the place to be if you want a big celebration so we decided to go for it. It's still early but we're already having an awesome time."

Last-minute preparations for the Capital's world-famous celebrations continued throughout the day as police and organisers braced themselves for the 100,000 revellers expected to descend on the city centre. People coming to the street party were advised to wrap up warmly as temperatures dipped below zero across the country, with lows of minus 5C expected in Edinburgh.

Among the big names lined up for the event were veteran dance act Groove Armada, electro-pop group Hot Chip, Scots rockers Glasvegas and singer Paolo Nutini.

The evening was set to culminate with a huge fireworks display in front of Edinburgh Castle, followed by a mass rendition of Old Lang Syne and a light and laser show.

The organisers hope to match last year's success when tens of thousands of people cheered in the New Year in a problem-free event, wiping away memories of 2006, when gale-force winds forced the event to be scrapped.

For Nutini, the night was set to continue with a dash across to Glasgow where he was due to headline the city's Hogmanay celebrations in George Square.

Organisers of Glasgow's event also warned partygoers about freezing temperatures.

Across the country, however, Scots were ignoring the cold and partying their way into 2009.

Singers Amy Macdonald and Sandi Thom were set to headline Aberdeen's party at Castlegate, while US indie rockers, The Magic Numbers, were billed to entertain revellers in Inverness.

In Stonehaven, thousands were preparing for the traditional fireball parade, while Deacon Blue was set to play at Stirling Castle Esplanade.

In Oban, bagpipe group the Red Hot Chilli Pipers were due to help bring in the New Year.

And a happy queue year to you

EDINBURGH Hogmanay organisers were criticised yesterday after hundreds of people were left queuing for hours in freezing temperatures to get tickets they had already paid for.

A line of about 1,000 people snaked around St Andrew Square as people turned up to get their street party tickets.

Although most were stoic about the three-hour wait, refusing to let it ruin their new year, others had grown angry.

The main criticism was that organisers had expected those who had pre-bought tickets on the internet to join the same queue as those who were buying them at the last minute.

Karen Tyler, from Milton Keynes, said: "There's no segregation between those who have bought them already and those who are just waiting for a ticket. It's ridiculous. It's three hours for a ticket."

A council spokesman said: "To meet growing demand, we released a limited number of £10 street party passes. As a result this has created some queuing.

"We are doing our best to minimise waiting times."