ROSALIND ERSKINE Published: 17:54 Wednesday 03 January 2018 0 HAVE YOUR SAY Eagle eyed Edinburgh residents recently noticed a change in one of the city’s most famous watering holes The Conan Doyle is, for now, known as The J.K Rowling in a move that has angered and baffled some locals. But fans of the Sherlock author’s namesake bar can relax as this change is only temporary courtesy of a new and exciting immersive visual art event taking place across the Capital this month.
The visual art event is titled Message from the Skies and is a collaboration between crime writer Val McDermid, theatre director Philip Howard and Double Take projections. Message from the Skies is designed to showcase the streets and buildings that have inspired some of the Capital’s finest authors from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson to JK Rowling and Muriel Spark. The event runs from the 1 January until 25 January and offers residents and visitors to Edinburgh the chance to explore the city as they read, moving from location to location to find out the next part of the story. Each landmark or building has its own chapter meaning that the entire story can be enjoyed in a day or over a period of time.
Three young writers have joined crime author Val McDermid to see their work projected onto landmarks and buildings as part of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations.
Visitors can take a literary journey to read New Year’s Resurrection, a new short story by McDermid, which is being projected onto locations around the city each day from 5pm to 10pm until January 25.
The story for the Message from the Skies project was commissioned by Edinburgh’s Hogmanay and Edinburgh International Book Festival.
After the explosive opening to 2018 of the fireworks display above Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay continues with a specially commissioned story writ large in light on Edinburgh buildings.
Edinburgh kicked off the New Year with a nine-minute fireworks display above Edinburgh Castle. The “Midnight Moment” was choreographed to a specially commissioned soundscape created by Skye band Niteworks and sound designer and film composer Dan Jones in collaboration with fireworks experts Titanium.
A full capacity crowd of 75,000 were regaled by a huge range of fireworks including brand new ones called planets which have fizzy sherbet middles, while a drum solo in the middle was choreographed to showers of pink and gold arrows ricocheting into the night sky.
Concert in the Gardens headliner Rag’n’Bone Man led a rousing rendition of the traditional Auld Lang Syne.
Storm Dylan
In previous years high winds have forced the organisers to cancel the Hogmanay street party at the last minute. There were similar fears this year when Princes Street was temporarily closed to pedestrians earlier in the day after a part of a stage was blown over.
ROSALIND ERSKINE