Rag'N'Bone Man To Headline Edinburgh's Hogmanay Concert

8 September 2017, 07:09

Rag'n'Bone Man is to headline the revamped programme for Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations.

Best known for his single Human, the 2017 double Brit Award winner will welcome in the new year at the Concert in the Gardens in West Princes Street Gardens.

The 2018 hogmanay programme is the first to be directed by entertainment company Underbelly, one of the largest events organisers at the capital's annual Fringe festival.

Around 10,000 tickets for the Concert in the Gardens go on sale on Tuesday and Rag'n'Bone Man said he is excited to be "breaking the New Year in with the Scots".

Previous acts to play the capital on Hogmanay include Paolo Nutini, Pet Shop Boys, Kasabian, and Blondie. Further support acts for this year will be announced later.

Organisers vowed the city's new year celebrations will be ''refreshed, re-energized and better than ever before'', when they unveiled their plans for the world-renowned event earlier this year.

Under the festival's 25th birthday programme, the 60,000-capacity street party will begin at 7pm and last until 1am on New Year's Day.

Bands and DJs, street performers, dancers, acrobats, flash mobs and fire eaters will all combine to bring a carnival-type spirit to Princes Street.

An extended fireworks display from the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle will see in the new year when the clock strikes midnight.

The three-day festival opens on December 30 with the traditional Torchlight Procession.

It will blaze a new path through the historic heart of the city this year, around Holyrood Palace and the Scottish Parliament towards Holyrood Park.

Charlie Wood and Ed Bartlam, directors of Edinburgh's Hogmanay, said: "We're delighted to have one of the UK's most exciting new artists headlining Edinburgh's Hogmanay in our first year of producing the event.

"This has been Rag'n'Bone Man's year and so where better to end it than at the mother of all New Year celebrations in Edinburgh."

Edinburgh City Council's culture convener Donald Wilson said: "Edinburgh's Hogmanay is the place to be to send off the 70th anniversary of Edinburgh as the Festival City and kick off 2018 with a stellar musical line-up.

"Rag'n'Bone Man is a great coup for our world-famous Concert in the Gardens. Get set to enjoy the best New Year party in the UK, if not the world."