Each winter, as we turn the calendar page to a new year, cities around the globe put on dazzling fireworks displays to cap off a celebratory night. And while New York is the centerpiece for festivities in the United States, it’s just one of many metropolises that outdo themselves each year with their pyrotechnic shows. From a Down Under celebration rich in Indigenous customs to a party in the shadow of the world’s tallest skyscraper, these are the best places around the world to see New Year’s Eve fireworks.
New York City
Times Square may be the hub for New Year’s Eve celebrations in the United States, but fireworks tend to take a backseat to all the other events, including celebrity appearances, pop star performances, and of course the countdown and ball drop. Elsewhere around town, you can catch fireworks with much smaller crowds—where you won’t need to stake out your spot 12 hours early!—at Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza, near the gateway to Prospect Park; in Central Park, where New York Road Runners hosts a four-mile Midnight Run; and near the Statue of Liberty, where the best seat in the house is on a harbor cruise with a hot chocolate or a glass of Champagne in your hand.
Taipei, Taiwan
The iconic Taipei 101 skyscraper is forever associated with New Year’s Eve: It opened on December 31, 2004 as the world’s then-tallest building, just in time for the holiday. While it no longer holds the title, the building still makes for an exceptional backdrop for the night’s celebrations, and last year, some 16,000 fireworks were set off over the course of five minutes for an estimated one million spectators. The pyrotechnics are only part of the festivities, which also include some six hours of live performances in Taipei City Hall Square.
London
What better way to signal the start of the new year than the chiming of Big Ben? Once those resonant bong-bong-bongs start, the stretch of the Thames in front of the London Eye erupts into a glittering serpent of fireworks. To secure a spot in the viewing section on Victoria Embankment, you’ll need to nab one of the 100,000 tickets, which go for £20 each. And if you don’t get a spot, that means you might be in better shape to wake up early the next morning and enjoy the New Year’s Day Parade, which kicks off at noon on Piccadilly.
Dubai
At 2,722 feet tall, the Burj Khalifa is the world’s tallest building, so it naturally makes for a hard-to-miss focal point on the skyline any day of the year. But on New Year’s Eve it becomes even more of a showstopper, thanks to its mesmerizing fireworks and laser display. This year, in a fun new program, revelers can send in their well wishes for the new year via WhatsApp, and they’ll be projected onto the skyscraper in English or Arabic. Across town, Sting will headline a gala at Atlantis, The Palm, with a 30-piece band, a beachfront fireworks show, and what the resort describes as “free-flowing Champagne.”
Sydney
If you’ve watched televised New Year’s Eve coverage anywhere around the globe, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the fireworks that blast off from atop the Sydney Harbour Bridge like some pyrotechnic stegosaurus. But if you’re not there in person, you’re missing out on what makes the event really special. The country’s Indigenous community is celebrated with an Aboriginal “Welcome to Country” that involves artistic projections and a smoking ceremony, in which native plants smolder in a ritual of purification and unity. Getting a good viewing spot used to involve coughing up big bucks, but the new government announced in September that they’d be scrapping fees in popular spots like the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Domain, and the Barangaroo Reserve.
