January 2013 - Stonehaven Guide Blog

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Monday 7 January 2013

19:05 0

Stonehaven put on probably it's biggest event to date on Hogmany when Open Air in the Square was revised after no event in 2011 due to lack of volunteers.

Thanks to the tenacity of local hotel owner Michelle Ward the Market Square attracted it's biggest ever crowd with a variety of talented entertainers.

Michelle was ably supported by an enthusiastic commitee who formed Stonehaven Festivals and Events Group a registered charity.

The event kicked off at 2pm with the Lyndsay School of Dance and foreign visitors enjoyed the traditional Highland Dancing.

Local band Evening Sprint all pupils at Mackie Academy played an excellent set, before the Blazing Fiddle closed the afternoon performance.

The Market Square closed from 6pm to 8.30 pm when large crowds gathered to be entertained by
former Stonehaven lad Colin Clyne who has been making a musical career for himself in America.

Evening Sprint took the stage again to a much larger audience and wowed the crowd.

Local girl Amy Sawyer and her band gained a lot more fans after a brilliant performance.


Some of the crowd did not want to miss the famous Fireballs Festival and left for a short while and returned to see the last part of the Red Hot Chill Pipers performance.

Considering Stonehaven was affected by floods twice in the last few weeks, this was a magnificent effort which brought plenty cheer. The video below by Billy Allan gives you a little flavour of what it was like.



What an atmosphere in the town and what a well behaved crowd.The Red Hot Chilli Pipers proved to be a class act and as many people said " What a way to bring in the New Year.

The organisers deserve a lot of credit for staging this event despite the many obstacles they faced with regard to Health & Safety.They did underestimate the popularity of the bar manned by volunteers but no doubt lessons have been learned.

All in all I thought it was a first class event.
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