Covid in Scotland: Stonehaven Fireballs festival cancelled for second year

The Stonehaven Fireballs festival, one of Scotland's most famous Hogmanay events, has been cancelled for the second year in a row due to Covid.

Organisers said "it would not be right" to stage the event following a national spike in cases of the virus.

The festival had been given the all-clear by the police and fire service as it breached no government rules.

However the Fireballs Association said it felt "a duty of care" to residents of the Aberdeenshire town.

Committee chairman Ross Milne told the BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland they were "absolutely gutted".

He said: "It's really disappointing. We've only just made the announcement that we were green for go, but that coincided around the rise in reports of this Omicron. It just started to feel a little bit wrong.

"We have not had any specific guidance or steer to say you can't go ahead, it's just more of a feeling from the association.

"We have a duty of care to the town of Stonehaven. We just felt it was the right thing to do."

Scares spirits away

The capacity would have been about 10,000.

Tradition says the ceremony scares away the spirits from one year and brings good luck for the next.

Crowds gather to watch the procession make its way through the town, with the fireballs being thrown into the harbour.

Remnants of the homemade balls are then retrieved from the sea.

The event organisers said it would be back again in future years "to celebrate Hogmanay in true Stonehaven style".

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