New Year's Eve in Vienna
Vienna is a city of pleasure. That becomes especially clear on New Year's Eve, when the whole city celebrates. High spirits abound at gala dinners, in concert halls, at the opera or in chic bars.
Vienna New Year's Eve Trail
A highlight on December 31 is the Vienna New Year's Eve Trail. From 2.00 pm in the afternoon to 2.00 am the following morning, top entertainment is guaranteed by the New Year's Eve Trail in Vienna city center. Along the New Year's Eve Trail, dozens of gastronomes serve punch, sparkling wine, and culinary specialties. Numerous areas provide entertainment with show programs, waltzes, rock, pop, disco, blues, funk, soul, and DJ lines. The New Year's Eve Trail runs from Freyung via Am Hof square, Graben, Stephansplatz, and Kärntner Strasse to Neuer Markt. The classical area on Graben is a popular fixture. Vienna's dance schools offer crash waltz dancing courses here during the afternoon and transform Graben into an idyllic open-air ballroom.
The opening bars of Johann Strauss 2025
The Strauss anniversary year 2025 will officially get underway on New Year’s Eve with the “Countdown Strauss” music project on Rathausplatz. In 2025, a series of events will be held in Vienna to celebrate the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss, who created an integral part of the Austrian New Year’s Eve tradition in the form of the Danube Waltz. People from a variety of backgrounds are fine-tuning their musical skills in anticipation of the participative musical project “Countdown Strauss” and will then perform together as a 100-piece super band on Rathausplatz as part of the New Year’s Eve trail. The project is being led by star percussionist Martin Grubinger.
At midnight, visitors to the New Year's Eve Trail dance into the new year to the sounds of the Blue Danube Waltz and the Pummerin, the famous bell in St. Stephen's Cathedral. It so happens that the Pummerin only rings on special occasions. One of them is the change of year. The ringing of the Pummerin on New Year's Eve is even broadcast on radio and TV, followed by Johann Strauss's famous Blue Danube Waltz.
The party happens with free admission at a total of eight locations - not only in the city center, but also at Rathausplatz and Riesenradplatz in the Prater. Instead of fireworks, there will be an opulent laser show synchronized with the Danube Waltz.
Please note that rockets and firecrackers (from category F2) are prohibited throughout Vienna.
"Die Fledermaus" by Johann Strauss is performed in traditional style at the Vienna State Opera on New Year's Eve. And on New Year's Day, all of Vienna watches the traditional TV broadcast of the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert while enjoying a morning "hangover cure" brunch. The New Year's Concert will be broadcast live from the Musikverein to Stephansplatz and the Prater at Riesenradplatz on 1.1.2024 from 11.15 am. Some Viennese hotels also broadcast the event live at a cozy brunch.
Brilliant exhibitions and plenty of concerts, operas and operetta hits, as well as the musical highlights The Phantom of the Opera and Rock Me Amadeus - The Falco Musical offer visitors celebrating the New Year in Vienna this year a wide range of attractions for day and night. Anyone who would like to dance into the New Year in three-four time to the tune of a waltz will have the opportunity to do so at the New Year’s Eve Gala in Vienna's City Hall.
Vienna New Year's Eve Trail
December 31, 2024
2.00 pm - 2.00 am
Food and drink from 11.00 am
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