People celebrate New Year around the world
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of New Year’s Eve celebrations around the world as 2025 begins. We’ll bring you some of the best photos as people around the world celebrate the New Year – at least in those parts of the world that use the Gregorian calendar. Other New Year are available.
major events
Sydney is the self-proclaimed “New Year’s Eve Capital of the World”, but even bigger crowds will be flocking to Melbourne to see it in 2025.
Families and groups gathered early along the banks of Melbourne’s Yarra River to secure a good view of the city skyline in anticipation of 14 tons of fireworks being fired from 27 buildings along with 60 lasers.
Dominic Adami and a group of friends chose their spot at Alexandra Gardens near the Yarra and arranged a picnic before settling in for the midnight light show.
“I heard, this year, they’re going to be bigger than Sydney, but generally they’re pretty good,” Adami told the Australian Associated Press.
“Even when I watch it on TV sitting at home or somewhere else, it still looks amazing.
“Each year gets better and better, and it looks like this year is going to be the best.”
A family-friendly fireworks display over Sydney Harbor preceded the main display at midnight (1am GMT).
Another visitor to Sydney is a British tourist who used to see pictures of fireworks along the harbor as a child and vowed to visit the port city one day.
The 28-year-old has found a vantage point in Balmain with friends and is looking forward to the show.
“It’s a bucket list thing for me,” he told AAP.
“Sydney’s fireworks at home are always in the news, it’s one of the first places to welcome the New Year.”
Auckland has just become the first major city to welcome 2025, with thousands counting down the New Year and celebrating with fireworks launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, the Sky Tower, and a spectacular light show Are.
Thousands of people gathered in the city center or climbed the city’s volcanic peaks for vantage points of the fireworks and the light display recognizing Auckland’s indigenous tribes. This is a year of protests over Maori rights in the country of five million.
Countries in the South Pacific region celebrate the New Year first, with midnight striking in New Zealand two hours before midnight in Sydney, 13 hours before in London and 18 hours before the ball drops in New York.
The countdown is well and truly underway in Australia – at least in the country’s eastern cities where there’s less than an hour left before midnight.
Hundreds of thousands of people have already flocked to the most vantage points around Sydney Harbor to await the famous New Year’s Eve fireworks show.
Many of those who will bring New Year to Sydney are tourists like Roman and Monica Gzerneck from Germany, who have been waiting for hours for the Sydney pyrotechnics.
“They’re obviously world famous so we have to see them,” Roman Gjersnek told the Australian Associated Press.
The pair will fly to New Zealand on New Year’s Day to continue the trip of a lifetime.
“We are pensioners so we are spending our time around the world,” he said.
People celebrate New Year around the world
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of New Year’s Eve celebrations around the world as 2025 begins. We’ll bring you some of the best photos as people around the world celebrate the New Year – at least in those parts of the world that use the Gregorian calendar. Other New Year are available.