- Edinburgh’s Christmas 2016
- Edinburgh’s Hogmanay 2016
- Broughton High School Community Festival 2016
- MSPs wear it pink
- Kate Rusby at The Usher Hall
Edinburgh will continue to the place to be at Christmas this year with many highlights and some changes to the programme:
- The stunning Street of Light moves to George Street at the Charlotte Square end and opens on 20 November as part of Light Night. This huge 60,000 bulb success in 2015 returns in 2016, this time located on the west end of George Street, spreading the beneficial effect to the West End of Edinburgh; with music from local choirs and bands including the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus, the hottest contemporary fiddle music from the Highlands and Islands, Blazin’ Fiddles, and Scotland’s very own bhangra group Tigerstyle. Last year’s spectacular was all about spectating, this year we want to get you singing and dancing. Free to access.
- Edinburgh’s Christmas is delighted to announce a new partnership with one of Edinburgh’s biggest employers, Standard Life, as new sponsors of St Andrew Square and its elliptical ice rink, a much loved part of the Christmas festivities in the city.
As part of the celebrations, Standard Life will be gifting 10,000 free tickets to school children in Edinburgh. They will have a chance to take a free spin around the ice rink in the stunning setting of St Andrew Square between 18 November 2016 and 7 January 2017. Standard Life free tickets for school children will be available from 11 October and all schools in Edinburgh will be eligible to apply and join in the celebrations.
Those applying for free tickets online will also be invited to make a donation to Place2Be, a leading national children’s mental health charity and chosen by Standard Life’s employees as their charity partner in the UK. The Christmas ice rink is always a popular draw for families, last year issuing over 61,000 tickets over the Christmas period. Standard Life will also be gifting some tickets to Place2Be, its official charity partner until the end of 2017, and encouraging people to support their work.
And there is no rest for the wicked (media!) today as it is time for the launch of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay this morning. We will gather at the museum before it opens to be told what wonders there will be in this year’s offering. This will be the first time that Pete Irvine has not been in charge, but it is his company who retain the contract with the City of Edinburgh Council and we are sure that the handover to the rest of the team will have been seamless.
More news for you later this morning, but you have to agree that Edinburgh has come a long way in the last 25 years or so. We now have lots to do on New Year’s Day and in the past few years the concerts and activities on that day have been free of charge. The Scot : Lands event has gone a long way to bringing families into the city on the first day of the New Year. It is about so much more than just the fireworks!
On Saturday 24 September Broughton High School will be holding their Community Festival starting from 11:00am. You are promised endless activity like a climbing tower, inflatables, drumming, sumo suits, magic shows, hula hoops, face painting, henna and glitter tattoos, burritos, ice cream… the list goes on. They are hooping to celebrate the Olympics with music, sport, dance, crafts and food. Organised by the Broughton High School Parent Council this is one for your weekend diary.
Ash Denham MSP, Ben Macpherson MSP and Gordon MacDonald wear it pink in Parliament in aid of Breast Cancer Now
Edinburgh SNP MSPs showed support for women affected by breast cancer by dressing up in pink and encouraging everyone in Edinburgh to take part in the UK’s biggest, brightest and pinkest fundraiser, wear it pink, on Friday 21 October.
Wear it pink is back for its 15th year, calling on supporters across the country to add a flash of pink to their wardrobe for the day and raise money for Breast Cancer Now’s life-saving breast cancer research.
Ben Macpherson, Ash Denham and Gordon MacDonald joined fellow parliamentarians in Holyrood to encourage people across Scotland to get involved and help support Breast Cancer Now’s efforts to ensure that, by 2050, everyone who develops breast cancer lives – an ambition shared by the Scottish Government and all party leaders in Scotland.
Wear it pink raises close to £2 million each year for world-class research into breast cancer, and this year it’s going to be pinker and more fun than ever before. Anyone can take part, whether at work, at home or at school. All you have to do is wear something pink and donate what you can.
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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
