The showpiece concert in Princes Street Gardens, with such names as Blondie, Scissor Sisters and KT Tunstall all among former headliners, is always eagerly anticipated. Other highlights include the Torchlit Procession and Fire Festival, a magical spectacle of light winding its way through the city, and the Night Afore International, a vibrant blend of entertainment including the world's biggest ceilidh, a Latin carnival stage and international street theatre.

The focal point of all festivities is the Royal Bank Street Party (admission by pass only) on New Year's Eve, which attracts around 100,000 revellers. Other events include the grand Seven Hills Firework Display and, for those seeking a more sedate preamble into the New Year, a candlelight concert in the tranquil setting of St Giles Cathedral.

Scotland has celebrated New Year more enthusiastically than the rest of Britain since the 16th century, when the Reformation meant that the suspiciously Catholic-sounding festival of Christmas was more or less banned. The pre-Christian traditions associated with New Year celebrations were tolerated much more, which meant that Hogmanay soon became the country's main winter festival.

The solemn Calvinists of the Reformation period would probably be surprised to learn that they had inadvertently founded one of Europe's biggest parties. The present-day form of Edinburgh's Hogmanay extravaganza is much more recent, though; effectively founded in 1992, the civic festivities grew so much over the 1990s that more than half a million visitors now attend the four-day celebrations every year (five if you count the extra Bank Holiday on 2 January the Scots have, simply to recover!).