Happy New Year! Scotland welcomes 2020 with parties and fireworks

People around Scotland are ringing in the new year with firework displays and Hogmanay street parties.

Organisers estimate as many as 100,000 revellers celebrated the start of 2020 at one of the biggest street parties in the world in Edinburgh, in the shadow of the city’s castle on Tuesday night.

They have been enjoying performances across three stages by acts including DJ Mark Ronson, Marc Almond and Idlewild, as well as the Scottish capital’s world-famous midnight fireworks display.

After the crowd counted down from ten to ring in the new year, more than 3600 fireworks were set off from Edinburgh Castle, to be followed by the traditional rendition of ‘Auld Lang Syne’.

TV stars Ant and Dec took to the stage in Princes Street Gardens earlier on Tuesday evening as crowds gathered, playing music and introducing the first firework display of the night.

Street theatre, circus acts and musical performances also took place up across more than a dozen streets, including the city’s main throughfare Princes Street and its adjacent gardens,.

Meanwhile, ceilidhs danced their way into the night in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle.

In Glasgow, Hogmanay partiers packed into the renowned street party on Ashton Lane in the west end, for more fireworks as well as live music and street food.

Aberdonians rang in the bells at Schoolhill in a free non-ticketed event while in Stirling a fireworks display lit up around the city’s iconic castle.

Dundee is hosting its first major Hogmanay street party in two decades in City Square, and Inverness is holding its popular ‘Red Hot Highland Fling’ to welcome 2020.

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations run for three days, drawing in an estimated 150,000 people from elsewhere in the UK and around the world.

The events include a torchlight procession through Edinburgh, which happened on Monday, and the Loony Dook on New Year’s Day where hardy people take a dip in the chilly Firth of Forth.