New Year’s Eve in New York: what to do, see and eat
Whether you want to brave or beat the crowds, here’s a guide to New Year’s Eve parties, shows, family-friendly events and other festivities in the New York area.
To experience the Times Square ball drop in person, stand in one of the viewing areas in the afternoon; there are access points at 49th, 52nd and 56th Streets at 6th and 8th Avenue. The Times Square Alliance website is your one-stop shop for all things licorice.
If you prefer to watch from a distance, you can visit the Alliance offers one free live webcast from 6 p.m., hosted by Jonathan Bennett and Jeremy Hassell, with musical performances by Paul Anka and Flo Rida. Other home options include ABCs “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest,” with performances from Post Malone, Janelle Monae and more artists, and live from CNN New Year’s Eve Show, again hosted by Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, featuring songs from Maroon 5, Rod Stewart and more. Both shows start at 8 p.m
Outside of Manhattan, Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park will feature live music from 10 p.m. before a free fireworks show at midnight.
To spend on watching fireworks, take one champagne tasting cruise along the Hudson and East Rivers aboard the yacht Northern Lights. The three-and-a-half-hour formal-wear cruise includes an array of bubbly, hors d’oeuvres and a live jazz band. Views include the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges.
Take over the dance floor
Joyface, a ’70s-inspired nightclub in the East Village, is hosting one Disco ball on New Year’s Eve with bellbottom era classics from DJ Harkness Granger, an open bar and bagels and schmear at the end of the night. The dress code sounds like it will be like this a party: “we want camp, we want colors. the weirder and wilder the better. Bring your mother.”
Nostalgia drives other dance parties around town. The music of Nine Inch Nails and other industrial and darkwave bands is on the playlist Nevermore Goth Rave at Drom in the Oostdorp. Italo disco and 80s synth are the vibe San Junipero: a retro wave party on New Year’s Eve at Saint Vitus Bar in Greenpoint, where “Tron” gear is encouraged. Neon headbands and snap bracelets are the accessories du jour Back to the 90’s New Year’s Eve party at Houston Hall, a bar in the West Village where refreshments include a spiked Kool-Aid cocktail and chicken tenders.
Billed by organizers as a ‘big weird NYE for the whole community’ Glitterball from Hot Rabbit goes until 5 a.m. at the Brooklyn Monarch, an indoor-outdoor club venue. There will be sets from the DJs Meduusa, highgnx And Illexxandrain fashion at the houses of Oricci and Babylon and “soft and sexy go-go magic” by the LGBTQ women’s group Honey Burlesque.
Take part in a show
Music lovers have a full calendar of options including, as always, Phish at Madison Square Garden. The jam band Gov. Mule is at the Beacon Theater, the punk band Gogol Bordello at Brooklyn Bowl, and the pop-rock band Dog park at the Bowery Electric. And there is Billy Joel at UBS Arena.
For cabaret lovers, Lorna Luftwhose mother is the Judy Garland performs a show at 54 Below, the Midtown Manhattan cabaret, at 7 p.m. Singer Natalie Douglas returns for her 25th annual New Year’s Eve concert, ‘A very Natalie New Year’, at 7pm at Chelsea Table + Stage; a livestream option is available for $20.
If you want to end 2023 with a laugh, comedian Rachel Bloom will perform her solo piece ‘Death, Let Me Do My Show’ in the Orpheum Theatre. The Comedy club New York hosts “Ball Drop” shows at 10 p.m. in Midtown location and at the East Village location at 10:30 p.m.
New Year’s Eve is about to sweep into the Hudson Valley. Jet Set Tiki Bar in Newburgh, NY, host a drag brunch starring queens Victoria Bohmore, Cookie Doe and Belle Pepper. City Winery in Montgomery, NY, hosts “Cruising with the Golden Girls,” a murder mystery and dance party with drag show, including a three-course dinner.
Go for a walk
NYC Walks hosts a tour of Downtown Manhattan, organized to end in Battery Park in time for midnight fireworks. There are stops at the World Trade Center, the New York Stock Exchange, and the Red Cube Sculpture, and tours are available in your choice of English, French, and Spanish. A VIP ticket includes chocolates and a champagne toast for two.
If you’d rather run away, the Queen’s Eve 5K starts at 11 a.m. with a trail through Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The New York Road Runners’ Four Miles Midnight run through Central Park begins when the clock strikes midnight and ends with fireworks.
Walking and eating at the same time in Best Tours excursion with seven cupcakes through the West Village or at Sidewalk Food Tour’s trek of six stops through restaurants on the Lower East Side.
Take the children
To ring in 2024 with the kids in your life, go for Noon Year’s Eve, a festive countdown to noon. There will be roller skates and pizza United Skating of America in Seaford, N.Y., in Nassau County; crafts and a dance party at the Long Island Children’s Museum in Garden City, NY; and a balloon drop and party favors at the Staten Island Children’s Museum.
Spend the afternoon in the Bronx at the New York Botanical Garden, where this is the case this year Holiday Train Show has a new outdoor display. Enjoy acrobats and clowning whenever Circus Vazquez performs three shows at Citifield. Look at the sky with “Seasons of Light,” a holiday-themed show at the Newark Museum of Art’s planetarium. Or build a shadow box puppet theater on the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers.
Many shows in the city perform matinees, including the “Radio City Christmas Spectacle” And New York City Ballet‘s production of George Balanchine’s ‘The Nutcracker’. For theater lovers, there are matinees of the Broadway musical “Aladdin” and the Off Broadway revival of “Small store full of horrors.”
Take in a classic movie
The New Year’s Eve scheme at the Metrograph Theater on the Lower East Side is a film nerd’s dream. Start with “Magnolia” at 11 a.m. and stay with “American Beauty” at 2:45 p.m.
And what about a triple inter-boro movie: shows at the Nighthawk Cinema in Prospect Park “When Harry Met Sally” at 11 a.m. The Museum of the Moving Image has “The Wicker Man” at 3 p.m. And at Film Forum a ticket for the 8:15 p.m. screening “The Thin Man” comes with free bubbles.