Edinburgh’s annual Hogmanay festival got under way on Thursday and lasts four days Hundreds of thousands of revellers have welcomed in the new year at open-air parties around the UK.
An estimated 80,000 are attending the annual Hogmanay party in Edinburgh, while 250,000 are expected to have watchd the fireworks in central London.
Other cities in Scotland, including Glasgow and Inverness, are also hosting new year celebrations.
The better weather is also expected to encourage partygoers in Wales to take to the nation’s streets.
Hundreds of people were expected to attend the free Calennig celebrations at Cardiff Civic Centre, which features a live music concert with Dr and The Medics and T.
The event included a fire show and funfair, as well as midnight skating at an open-air ice rink.
Edinburgh’s Hogmanay festival lasts four days and got under way on Thursday with a torchlight procession.
The ticket-only main event on New Year’s Eve includes an open- air concert starring Biffy Clyro, The Charlatans and Billy Bragg.
“It just works – I don’t think anyone else can do it like we do”
Peter Irvine Edinburgh Hogmanay director
Billy Bragg, who had finished his performance but was staying on with his family to watch Biffy Clyro and the fireworks, said he had taken along a pair of tartan long johns but had not needed them on stage.
He said Scotland had “kind of invented New Year get-togethers”, so Edinburgh was where he wanted to be.
Biffy Clyro’s frontman Simon Neil said: “There’s no better way to end the year.
“We have been really fortunate all year – but even if it had been awful, it would have felt great because of tonight.
“It’s a real honour and we’re looking forward to rocking some cold folk.”
Edinburgh Hogmanay director Peter Irvine said record numbers of revellers had been expected to gather in the capital city.
“We always say this is the home of Hogmanay,” he said.
“This event has a really good feeling and atmosphere. It just works – I don’t think anyone else can do it like we do.”
In Glasgow, crowds will be toasting the new year with one of Scotland’s biggest outdoor ceilidhs, in George Square.
Crowds also gathered in central London for the free annual fireworks, which were launched from three barges and the London Eye.
The eight-minute display had a musical soundtrack for the first time.
Some 3,000 police officers are on duty, and a Metropolitan Police spokesman said the crowds were larger than last year but so far there had been only five arrests for minor offences.
Party organisers will no doubt be relieved the freezing conditions of the past few weeks have been replaced by milder weather, with temperatures of 4-5C in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London.
The BBC Weather Centre says it is a dull and misty end to 2010.
“A band of rain and hill snow will move south through Scotland overnight, reaching northern England and Northern Ireland by dawn, with colder, clearer conditions, frost and ice following behind in a northerly breeze,” forecasters said.
“Further south, mostly dry and cloudy.”
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