A COMMUNITY celebration of New Year’s Eve may be staged near the Minster next year as part of the York 800 festivities.

People gathering near the cathedral at the end of 2012 may for the first time have a focal point for the countdown to midnight, with performances taking place on a stage, says City of York Council chief executive Kersten England.

She said that as a Scot from Edinburgh, she knew what could be done on New Year’s Eve and she hoped organised activities in York might help deter antisocial behaviour on the night. If the event went well, similar celebrations could be staged on December 31 in following years.

The plans are part of a year-long programme of events, unveiled yesterday, which will mark the 800th anniversary of the city being granted its Charter by King John, allowing it to elect a council, create a mayor and run its own affairs.

The Yorkshire Museum will stage a special exhibition of medieval artefacts including, hopefully, one of the city’s oldest books, which dates back to 1272 and lists all the people made freemen and women of the city over the following four centuries. There will also be York Stories, allowing residents to record their own personal stories about the city for posterity, a Medieval Summer of events, a specially commissioned Big City Read, featuring a medieval murder mystery set in The Minster, by Susanna Gregory, and a Festival Of Ideas And Innovation, on the theme of Metamorphosis And Transformation.

Other activities include performances of the Mystery Plays in the Museum Gardens, a flotilla of hundreds of boats on the Ouse to mark the opening of the 2012 Festival Of The Rivers, and dozens of York choirs and other singers coming together to perform a new choral work from a cruise boat in the middle of the Ouse and later from a land-based setting.

Activities which take place every year are also set to have a York 800 theme next year, from the Viking Festival and Early Music Festival to Illuminating York.