The start of 2024 saw the UK ushering in the new year with celebrations taking place across the country, featuring fireworks, street parties and a message of inclusivity. The spectacular fireworks display in London saw 100,000 people in attendance, watching as around 12,000 fireworks lit up the city, accompanied by 600 drones and 430 lights. As Big Ben struck midnight, drones lit up the London sky with the message “London, a place for everyone”.
In Scotland, thousands marked Hogmanay by braving the cold to attend a firework display after enjoying a live performance by Britpop band Pulp. There was also a mass ceilidh staged in Inverness. Celebrations continued into New Year’s Day with a parade beginning in Piccadilly at midday, which will make its way over to Westminster’s Parliament Square.
The London fireworks display quoted Shakespeare and also featured a message from King Charles marking the 75th anniversary of the Windrush crossing, in which he said new arrivals “collectively enrich the fabric of our national life”. Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, actress Dame Helen Mirren, Bella Ramsey, Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, George the Poet, and Baroness Floella Benjamin, who read a poem by the late Benjamin Zephaniah were among other high-profile personalities who contributed messages throughout the show.
In Edinburgh, the new year was brought in with fireworks over Edinburgh Castle. Visitors from over 80 countries gathered in the city to watch the display and thousands partied with a live music show headlined by Pulp in Princes Street Gardens. Organisers also held a “Red Hot Highland Fling” in Inverness, where Siobhan Miller entertained partygoers up to midnight with one of the biggest ceilidhs on the planet
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