Explosive finale for celebration

The Kessock Bridge will be closed for a fireworks display Was Highland 2007 worth it?

A year-long celebration of Highland arts and culture will climax on Saturday with a torchlight procession and a pyrotechnics display.

Highland Lights - the grand finale of Highland 2007 - will see the closure of the Kessock Bridge at Inverness on Saturday night.

Traffic restrictions will also be in place on city roads and streets.

French company Groupe F have been hired to put on the fireworks show from the road bridge.

Scottish Minister for Culture, Linda Fabiani, will lead the procession, which will start in Huntly Street from 1900 GMT.

She said she was delighted to join the closing ceremony - called Solais na Gaidhealtachd in Gaelic.

Ms Fabiani said: "Scotland's Year of Highland Culture has been a resounding success and has presented the region's rich cultural heritage to a worldwide audience."

The cost of the finale and the closing off of the Kessock Bridge has drawn criticism from some quarters.

THE GRAND FINALE The torchlight procession will start from Huntly Street from 1900 GMT Fireworks will be launched from the Kessock Bridge from 2030 GMT The Kessock Bridge will be closed between 1930 and 2130 GMT Festival goes out with a bang Roads closed for Highland Lights

David Henderson, Highland councillor for Inverness Ness-side, said people had contacted him unhappy about money from the Inverness Common Good Fund being used for the event.

The Liberal Democrat councillor said it was an event for the region as a whole and not just Inverness and should be paid for out of the Highland 2007 budget.

He added: "There are many more deserving ways in which the money could be spent."

Highland 2007 director, Fiona Hampton, said she was confident the public would view the cost as justified when they see the grand finale and believed that it would draw people to the city.

She said: "That is one of the reasons for employing the best pyrotechnics company in the world. They will put on a show."