Red Hot Highland Fling for Inverness Hogmanay set to return
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Inverness’s hugely popular Red Hot Highland Fling is set to make a comeback this Hogmanay for the first time since the pandemic.
Multi award-winning Scottish supergroup Mànran have been mooted as possible headliners for the event – usually held at Northern Meeting Park – but members of Highland Council’s events and festivals working group for the city have been “invited to use any possible contacts to suggest additional acts”.
The working group has been discussing upcoming events including plans for Halloween, Bonfire Night and the festive period – with some events that were previously held unlikely to return this year.
High Life Highland runs these public events on behalf of the council but the working group oversees the activities due to investment of Inverness Common Good Fund money towards them.
It looks likely the Christmas at Bellfield Park event staged during most of December last year will not be held again. The annual Christmas Lights Switch-on in November is also unlikely to happen.
In their deliberations, the group made it clear that there was “insufficient budget to provide all of the events” and “undoubtedly reducing the Winter Festival Programme would have an impact”.
However, they were aware that “it was important to manage expectations if events were cut back” and wanted to look at the possibility “that some events, particularly the Red Hot Highland Fling, could attract sponsorship from breweries”.
They also noted that the budget for events and festivals has been unchanged for years and that it was “important to bear in mind the considerable impact the Covid pandemic had had on this sector, which was only now starting to recover”.
And while there was significant praise for a lot of the programme, including the Bellfield Park event – noting how the events had either driven revenues for the city through visitors and providing entertainment – not all the events could be preserved.
For Christmas at Bellfield Park, the minutes stated: “This event, in 2021, had brought in a lot of secondary spend to Inverness and had proved particularly popular when Covid restrictions were in place, attracting visitors from both Inverness and the surrounding area. However, now that Covid restrictions had been lifted, it was possible numbers could reduce.”
Halloween at the Botanic Gardens will return after its debut Bootanics run last year was hailed a success – despite it being marred by wet weather – and it will explore the possibility of collaborating with Monsterfest which takes place at the same time at Eden Court. Civic Halloween events were previously held at Ness Islands but this venue was described as much safer.
The November 5 event is set to move back to Bught Park after a fireworks-only event was staged at Northern Meeting Park last year. It was queried if a bonfire was necessary for environmental reasons but Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said it would reduce the number of unsupervised fires elsewhere.
A spokesman for High Life Highland said: “High Life Highland is the City of Inverness Area Committee’s managing agent for events in Inverness, delivering on behalf of the Inverness events and festivals working group and financially supported by the Inverness Common Good Fund.
“The forthcoming programme of winter events has been decided upon by members of the events and festivals working group. High Life Highland will work to support the delivery of the group’s winter programme to the city’s residents and visitors.”
The group also discussed the first Inverness Highland Games since 2019, which was staged at Bught Park in July. It was hailed a success, attracting more than 7000 people and generating ticket income of £55,000.
