With 2025 underway, Aberdeen City Council is gearing up for an ‘incredibly important’ year packed full of exciting cultural events.
Several standout festivals are on the near horizon, with the dark tales of Granite Noir and the dazzling displays of Spectra all marked in the calendar for February.
Meanwhile thousands of visitors are expected to descend on Aberdeen in the summer for the long-awaited return of The Tall Ships Races, with the event sailing to the city harbour for the first time in almost three decades.
Councillor Martin Greig, the Council’s culture spokesman, said: “2025 will be an incredibly important year for cultural events in Aberdeen. An impressive programme is in place that will offer great experiences and create splendid memories.
“From Spectra to Granite Noir to the return of the Tall Ships races there really will be something for everyone. These wonderful festivals are bringing a great sense of excitement to the city.
“The cultural activity also generates huge economic benefits for our area. It is not surprising that Condé Nast Traveller has recently named Aberdeen as one of the best Staycation spots in the UK for 2025; the only Scottish city to make the list.”
Things get underway on February 6 with Scotland’s much-loved festival of light, Spectra, which returns for its 11th year with awe-inspiring art installations, interactive displays and light projections to transform famous city centre landmarks for four nights.
The full line-up is due to be announced in January, with some of the first attractions revealed last month.
Hot on the heels of Spectra, Thursday 20 – Sunday 23 February sees the return of Granite Noir, Scotland’s biggest crime-fiction festival, for its 9th year with a mixture of the thrilling, the macabre and even the supernatural.
Paula Hawkins and Nicci French are among the authors appearing , along with New York Times best seller Lucy Foley, award-winning comedian and Gentleman Thief Alasdair Beckett King, and singer-songwriter and author James Yorkston.
Then July 19-22 sees the return of the BIG one, with Tall Ships 2025 transforming the harbour and city centre into a huge maritime festival space.
Get all the latest Aberdeen news and headlines sent straight to your inbox by signing up to our free newsletter.
From breaking news in and around the city, to traffic and travel and health, we’ve got you covered.
The manually created newsletter arrives every day at around 4pm, giving you a round up of the most important stories we’ve covered that day.
To sign up, simply click this link here.
And if you aren’t already, make sure you join the conversation over on our Facebook Groups and Aberdeen Live Instagram.
As well as an anticipated 50 plus tall ships including a record number of Class A vessels, which are expected to draw 400,000 visits, a large outdoor event space adjacent to the harbour’s quaysides including a stage holding more than 7,000 people is to be constructed as part of the family-friendly festivities.
For those who cannot wait for these spectacular occasions, Aberdeen Art Gallery is already hosting Artist Textiles – Picasso to Warhol rare examples of textiles by world-famous artists including Alexander Calder, Salvador Dalí, Sonia Delaunay, Raoul Dufy, Barbara Hepworth, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Pablo Picasso, Ben Nicholson and Andy Warhol.
The exhibition, which arrived in Aberdeen following a major international tour of venues in Europe, the US, Canada, Europe and China runs until April 13, 2025.