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More than 500,000 revellers are expected to descend on Melbourne on Wednesday night to celebrate New Year’s Eve and bid farewell to 2025.
Whether you have fond memories of the past 12 months or are keen on a fresh start, if you’re coming into the city to celebrate, you’ll want to have a plan to get around.
The 2024 New Year’s Eve fireworks display lights up Melbourne’s CBD. Credit: Getty Images
Here’s what you need to know to help you decide where to be when the fireworks kick off in Melbourne, and how to get there.
Where can I watch the fireworks?
There will be two seven-minute fireworks and light shows on New Year’s Eve, first at 9.30pm for young families, and again at the stroke of midnight.
The fireworks will be visible from many parts of Melbourne, with organisers claiming it can be viewed as far away as Frankston and the Dandenong Ranges.
Melbourne City Council has established four designated celebration zones offering good views: Kings Domain, Flagstaff Gardens and Treasury Gardens in Melbourne’s CDB, and Victoria Promenade in Docklands. The zones are family-friendly and free and will feature DJs and food trucks to keep families entertained during the countdown to midnight.
Lord Mayor Nick Reece has promised the firework display, which cost about $6 million, will be Melbourne’s “biggest and best show yet”.
How can I travel to and from the city?
Partygoers can travel free via public transport from 6pm Wednesday until 6am Thursday. Extra train and tram services will ferry passengers throughout the city and regional Victoria.
Parliament, Melbourne Central and Flagstaff stations will operate until 3am. Southern Cross and Flinders Street stations will remain open all night.
Commuters are being advised to plan ahead and check for any disruptions.
There will be several road closures impacting traffic in the city, including sections of major thoroughfares Flinders Street, Swanston Street, Spring Street and Bourke Street. Most closures will end by early on New Year’s Day.
What else is on?
New Year’s Eve events are being held at bars and restaurants across Melbourne, including the Arbory Bar, Taxi Kitchen, Her, The Waterside Hotel and Heartbreaker.
Music festival When Pigs Fly will entertain revellers at Collingwood Children’s Farm, while masses will be dancing at the Beyond The Valley festival near Geelong. Both events are sold out.
Partygoers at the sold-out Beyond The Valley music festival last year. Credit: Photograph by Chris Hopkins
Tickets are still available, however, for NYE at the Bowl, an electronic music festival at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, for anyone yet to make plans.
Across the road at Hamer Hall, audiences can view the opening night of the musical Cats. For more contemporary theatre-lovers, there is a matinée showing of MJ the Musical at Her Majesty’s Theatre.
How is the weather looking?
It will be an unseasonably cold New Year’s Eve, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting a maximum of just19 degrees in Melbourne. It will be partly cloudy and there is a small chance of light rain in the early morning. The sun will set about 8.45pm.
The mild New Year’s Eve weather follows the coldest Christmas Day in nearly 20 years in Melbourne, when the mercury peaked at 17 in the city.
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