So they lit the tree on The Mound tonight and let off a few bangers…..and this is our capital city where we claim that people should come for the ultimate in Christmas and New Year entertainment.
Now it has to be said that the tree is a very welcome present from the people of Hordaland in Norway and the fireworks were very lovely indeed thanks to the professionalism of 21st Century Fireworks. But the rest?
Well, sorry if it sounds a bit bah humbug, but we feel that this year’s Light Night was just a wee bit of a letdown.
A large Santa Claus ‘walked’ up The Mound with the help of his elves. Then a girl and her teddy bear on a bed were transported up The Mound, while fighting each other with pillows. This was billed as a “bespoke show called the Christmas Dream Machine. The performance will include illuminations, aerial performances, flying Christmas presents and pyrotechnics, culminating with the traditional lighting of Edinburgh’s Christmas Tree and a short burst of fireworks from the Castle Esplanade.”
Our Lord Provost said a few words of welcome to the estimated 15,000 people in the city centre in his usual eloquent fashion.
Finally the ‘girl’ was magically whisked into the air and somehow she managed to light the tree. You will be able to see our video here soon.
Our Christmas celebrations are organised by events company She’s Gott It! and are also supported by Essential Edinburgh and Marketing Edinburgh. The company have been on contract to the council for some years now and in 2010/11 the budget for Edinburgh’s Christmas was almost £200,000 with another £112,000 of public and private sponsorship contributed to the public purse.
Nickie Gott, managing director of She’s Gott It!, Edinburgh’s Christmas producers, enthused at the launch of the event:- “There is no better place than Edinburgh during the festive period. With the remarkable Light Night starting things off in style, the city centre will be buzzing with activity and excitement. The capital is so magical at this time of year and we hope that our programme will amaze and delight the entire family.”
The crowd who afterwards tried to make their way down The Mound and who converged on the German Market in an attempt to make their way to Princes Street and finally to St Andrew Square appeared to be quite bad-tempered.
Now whether that was as a result of the show or the cold we simply cannot say. But as for us? We felt a bit short-changed.
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I was at the bottom of the Mound with my family the event was ok we have seen better but the sentences “The crowd who afterwards tried to make their way down The Mound and who converged on the German Market in an attempt to make their way to Princes Street and finally to St Andrew Square appeared to be quite bad-tempered.”
this was the case as we tried to move from the bottom of the Mound to go to the Gardens to take the children on some of the rides it was pandemonium trying to get through it was one big crazy crush and with folk carrying mugs of hot mulled wine, people trying to get buggies with babies through the crowds and folk just stopping for no reason it made for a very scary situation.
On entering the entrance to the gardens via the Highland Market i spotted a steward who seemed to me to be just chatting to a friend and asked him to call a supervisor as it was a nightmare and with loads of stewards standing around no attempt was made from them to try and do a bit of crowd control.
Next year we will probably stand on Waverly Bridge or somewhere else because in my opinion it is an accident waiting to happen on The Mound.
The thing I noticed were the queues of cars with very grumpy people, who had come in as part of the new Council Drive After Five campaign, making it difficult and dangerous to cross the roads. It would have been far more sensible to close some of the roads and give people space to enjoy a festival atmosphere in safety. Drive after Five is a thoroughly stupid policy and is an accident waiting to happen.
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