Highland Council has confirmed that Scotland’s biggest free Hogmanay concert, the Red Hot Highland Fling Hogmanay Event has been cancelled and the major event will no longer feature in its winter programme of events.

The event was cancelled in 2024 because of refurbishments at Northern Meeting Park and rising costs and the council hoped it would return in 2025.

The local authority’s Inverness Events and Festivals Working Group hoped that the Inverness Common Good Fund would support and run the event.

Provost of Inverness and Area Cllr Glynis Sinclair explained: “Sadly, we have come to the end of an era of the Red Hot Highland Fling Hogmanay Event. It is with regret that we confirm that this major event in the Inverness Events and Festivals programme will no longer feature on the winter festival calendar of events.

“The Events and Festivals Working Group has made every effort to engage in recent months with hospitality businesses in the city centre and other event organisers to explore the opportunity of an Inverness Common Good supported city centre based event which could be delivered through collaboration and partnership.

“Unfortunately, no proposals were forthcoming and therefore there is no longer the justification to invest funds from the Inverness Common Good Fund into a Hogmanay event.”

Since it first commenced in 2008, the Red Hot Highland Fling was open to the public with free entry attracting crowds of around 10,000 strong. In 2009, the event was cancelled due a snow blizzard and was again cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic.

With rising costs, and a reduction in budget for the Events and Festivals Working Group, entry charges were introduced in 2023 to help sustain the delivery of the events and festivals annual programme while reducing the risk to the Inverness Common Good Fund.

Previous free entry arrangements allowed Hogmanay revellers a free flow of access to and from the city centre providing the best possible opportunity for people to attend. The requirements for the event to be ticketed resulted in attendance being restricted and halved to around 5,000 people. The ticketing requirements combined with the risk of cancellation due to extreme winter weather made the continuation of the Red Hot Highland Fling in its traditional format no longer a viable option for the Inverness Common Good Fund to support.

Sinclair added: “While we regret the end of a publicly funded Inverness Hogmanay event, the Events and Festivals Working Group will continue to  support the Highland hospitality and business sector, particularly during the shoulder months October – March, by creating new and exciting crowd pleasing events.”

Image: Robin Canfield