People around the world ring in the new year
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of New Year’s Eve celebrations from around the world as 2025 begins. We will bring you some of the best photos as people around the globe ring in the new year – well at least those parts of the world that use the Gregorian calendar. Other new years are available.
Key events
Sydney is the self-appointed “world capital of new year’s eve” but there are also large crowds out in Melbourne to see in 2025.
Families and groups gathered early along the banks of Melbourne’s Yarra River, to secure a good view of the city’s skyline in anticipation of the 14 tonnes of fireworks shot from 27 buildings along with 60 lasers.
Domenic Adami and a group of friends picked their spot in Alexandra Gardens near the Yarra and set up a picnic before settling in for the midnight light show.
“I heard, this year, they’re going to be bigger than Sydney, but usually they’re pretty good,” Adami told Australian Associated Press.
“Even when I sit and watch it at home or from somewhere else on TV, it looks amazing.
“Each year has just gotten better and better, and this year seems like it’s going to be the best.”
The family-friendly fireworks went off over Sydney Harbour earlier before the main display at midnight (1pm GMT).
Another visitor to Sydney is British tourist who used to watch the images of harbourside fireworks a sa child and vowed one day to visit the harbour city.
The 28-year-old has found a vantage point in Balmain with friends and looking forward to the show.
“It is a bit of a bucket list thing for me,” she told AAP.
“At home the Sydney fireworks is always all over the news, it is one of the first places that brings in the New Year.”
Auckland has become the first major city to welcome 2025 a short while ago, with thousands of people counting down to the new year and cheering at fireworks launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, and a spectacular light show.
Thousands also thronged to downtown or climbed the city’s ring of volcanic peaks for a fireworks vantage point, and a light display recognizing Auckland’s Indigenous tribes. It follows a year marked by protests over Māori rights in the nation of 5 million.
Countries in the South Pacific are the first to ring in the New Year, with midnight in New Zealand striking two hours before midnight in Sydney, 13 hours ahead of London and 18 hours before the ball drop in New York.
The countdown is well and truly under way in Australia – at least in the country’s eastern cities where it is less than a hour to go before midnight.
Hundreds of thousands of people have already packed themselves into the best vantage points around Sydney harbour to wait for the famous New Year’s Eve fireworks show.
Many of those who will be bringing in the new year in Sydney are tourists such as Roman and Monica Gezernek from Germany who have been waiting for hours for the Sydney pyrotechnics.
“They’re world famous apparently so we have to see them,” Roman Gezernek told Australian Associated Press.
The pair will fly out to New Zealand on New Year’s Day to continue the trip of a lifetime.
“We’re pensioners so we’re just taking our time around the world,” he said.
People around the world ring in the new year
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of New Year’s Eve celebrations from around the world as 2025 begins. We will bring you some of the best photos as people around the globe ring in the new year – well at least those parts of the world that use the Gregorian calendar. Other new years are available.
