Scot:Lands on Ne’er Day
Edinburgh’s free New Year’s Day festival for all
The final tranche of tickets are available from Saturday 27 December 2014 for Scot:Lands, the Ne’er Day multi-genre, randomly generated trip around eleven city centre venues which is the highlight of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay.
Scot:Lands 2014 LAULAND III. Photo Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Lloyd Smith
Up to ten thousand people can take part in the event, which features performances curated by companies from all over Scotland. Entry is free, although everyone attending has to pre-register through the http://edinburghshogmanay.com website.
Applications for tickets reopen at 10am on Saturday 27 December 2014.
Peter Irvine, director of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay, told Æ that the Scot:Lands is a festival in itself, encompassing all contemporary art forms. He added that it is probably the biggest free arts festival in Scotland in terms of what it covers.
Starting at 12.30pm and lasting until 4.30pm, it takes place in eleven secret venues – although Irvine revealed to Æ that Dance Base is creating a new piece of dance for St Giles and the Assembly Roxy is where musician Roddy Hart will be inviting ten musican pals. The McEwan Hall is also being used.
Two venues to start from
On registering, audience members are given one of two venues to start from. When they arrive at the start point, they spin a compass to determine which venue they will go to next. Each venue takes up a section of the compass proportional to its capacity in an attempt to stop the kind of log-jam that occurred last year.
Irvine explains that: “Last year, when we had King Creosote at the City Arts Centre, people wouldn’t leave. There were huge queues outside to get in but nobody would leave. There was just a huge demand. We are amenable to a little bit of leeway but most people play the game, they just go to the venues that they spin.”
Roddy Hart & Lonesome Fired will play Heart:Land at the Assembly Roxy
He also contended that Scot:Lands is one festival which is targeted at Edinburgh residents, admitting that the celebrated Street Party might not be for everybody.
“Loads of Edinburgh folk like to do it,” he said. “We could run it for three days, quite easily. Actually, people of a certain age don’t want to be anywhere near the Street Party at all.”
Scot:Lands is funded to the tune of £200,000 from the Scottish government’s Expo Fund, which targets companies which have a potential to take a work and go on and tour it.
“The management of Scot:Lands is huge,” says Irvine, pointing out that 100 performing artists are involved. “That money is spent through 11 venues. We are creating each one like a fringe venue with the same production levels as if it was going to run for three weeks, even though it is only one afternoon. We have very high production levels.”
Scot:Lands
Mystery venues in Edinburgh’s Old Town.
Thursday 1 January 2015, 12.30-4.30pm.
Register online to take part at http://www.edinburghshogmanay.com/events/new-years-day from 10am on Saturday 27 December 2014.
ENDS
