Vancouver Fireworks

New Year’s Eve celebrations take place at various venues on December 31st including in downtown Vancouver, out on the water and at area nightclubs.

Below is a list of top New Year’s Eve party venues that take place most years. For ages 19+ party venues, see our article about Vancouver NYE Parties for Adults.

Click on any of the following links to jump to a specific venue or activity, or continue reading for full details about Vancouver’s best places to welcome the New Year.

Or, for details about pyrotechnic shows, click Vancouver Fireworks (which takes you to another page).

Lower Mainland New Year’s Eve Activities

The largest New Year’s Eve celebrations in the Lower Mainland used to take place around Canada Place in downtown Vancouver. The festivities there included ticketed parties as well as free concerts and fireworks. Vancouver’s New Year’s Eve fireworks didn’t happen on December 31st in 2022, but other events still took place. Vancouver’s December 31st fireworks were also cancelled in 2023. Hopefully they’ll finally happen in 2024.

See below for details about the various December 31st party places. Our list includes nightclubs in the City of Vancouver and elsewhere. It also includes boat parties on the water and fireworks events at ski hills.

New Year's at the Fairmont Waterfront

Metro Vancouver New Year’s Party Places

New Year’s Eve parties take place at various nightclubs, theatres and other venues around town. Below is a list of New Year’s Eve events that likely happen on or near December 31st.

(Note: Rates, venues and other details are subject to change.)

Events in the City of Vancouver

Vancouver Boat Parties – celebrate New Year’s Eve at the Vancouver New Year’s Eve Boat Party or Latin New Year Boat Party on the Magic Spirit. There is also the Vancouver New Year’s Eve Dinner Cruise on the Burrard Queen. All three events are floating nightclub-style events and take place on December 31st.
Guilt & Company – the popular live music venue in Gastown features an evening of casual fun and last year had singers NaRai Dawn and Dawn Pemberton perform. Admission is around $12 per set of music (and there are four sets).
NYE at Harbour Event Centre – an end-of-2023 event with DJ music from the duo Vini Vici took place at the Harbour Event Centre. Tickets last year started at around $80 plus taxes and online fees.
New Year’s Eve at Frankie’s Jazz Club – a night of dinner and Jazz at 755 Beatty Street. The event features a special meal and live music at 8:00 pm. Admission (including the food and cover charge) last year was about $135.
The Improv Centre – there are a few special end-of-year shows at the Improv Centre on Granville Island. 2023 & Me ran from December 27th to 30th, and NYE at TIC showed three times on December 31st last year.
Gatsby’s House Party – the party at the Marriott Pinnacle at 1128 W. Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver typically includes snacks, two prepaid drinks and DJ music. Admission starts at about $80 including taxes and fees and the party runs from 8:30 pm until 1:30 am.
Noir & Blanc NYE – a New Year’s Eve party with elaborate design and live entertainment at the Paradox Hotel at 1161 West Georgia Street. Tickets started at about $65 in 2023 and the event ran from 9:00 pm until 2:00 am.

NYE at Fairmont Vancouver Hotel — Grand Ball NYE at the Hotel Vancouver

Events Elsewhere in Metro Vancouver

NYE Tribute Concerts – two New Year’s Eve parties hosted by tribute bands took place on December 31st in 2023. Both shows started at 9:30 pm but happened at different locations. There was the NYE Eve Bash at the Hard Rock Casino in Coquitlam. It featured the Eagles tribute band Take it to the Limit and Linda Ronstandt tribute band Blue Bayou. Meanwhile, the other event was an 80s Dance Party at the River Rock Casino in Richmond. The event is with The Atari Radio Starz. You could expect to hear high-energy covers of songs from the 1980s, including hits by Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and more.
NYE at the Taphouse Guildford – an event with music, complimentary champagne and party favors for all at 15330 102A Avenue in Surrey. Tickets in 2023 started at about $30 and the event began at 10:00 pm.

For a list of more adults-only December 31st venues see Vancouver NYE Parties for Ages 19+.

New Year’s Eve Boat Parties

One of the best places to celebrate the arrival of the New Year is on a New Year’s Eve boat party cruise. They offer nightclub-style venues, food, drinks and spectacular views of the city.

A popular New Year’s Eve cruise is with Vancouver Boat Parties. Its 2023 events run from the evening of December 31st until around 1:30 am or so on January 1st. Last year’s Vancouver NYE Boat Party and Latin NYE Boat Party were held on the Magic Spirit yacht. The Vancouver New Year’s Eve Dinner Cruise, meanwhile, was on the Burrard Queen.

Boat parties are very popular things to do so tickets usually sell out in advance. For more details visit the Vancouver Boat Parties website.

Vancouver Boat Party Vancouver View

NYE Restaurant Dinners

Lots of restaurants offer special dinners and evening events on December 31st each year. Examples of ones in 2023 were the following:

Tutto – the Italian restaurant in Yaletown had a four-course NYE dinner with wine pairings. It included tuna saku for an appetizer followed by an antipasti. There was also a pasta as well as your choice of Surf & Turf, Eggplant Parmigiana or Sablefisth entrées, plus dessert. If you like Italian food, you’ll love this place!
P2B Bistro – the restaurant at the Pinnacle Harbourfront Hotel in downtown Vancouver had a three-course dinner with wine pairings on New Years Eve. The $129 dinner entrée options included your choice of pork belly with seared scallop, beef filet & seared foie gras, sake kasu glazed sablefish, or winter squash & porcini Wellington.
Winterlust – this is a unique dining experience where you get your own private dome that seats up to six people at the H Tasting Lounge at the Westin Bayshore Hotel in Coal Harbour. On December 31st the restaurant had a special seven-course dinner for around $190.
The Lobby – the restaurant at the Pinnacle Hotel at the Pier in North Vancouver had a fancy four-course NYE dinner starting at $89.
Pier 7 – this restaurant is right on the waterfront in North Vancouver’s Shipyards District. It had a special three-course dinner on December 31st starting at $90.

New Year’s Eve on Granville Street

There are a number of nightclubs on Granville Street just south of Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver. In normal years, all fill up on New Year’s Eve, so you need to buy tickets for them in advance. Even if you don’t get into one of the pubs or official party venues, there is lots of partying going on in the street.

On New Year’s Eve the City of Vancouver usually shuts down Granville Street to cars. The strip becomes a pedestrian-only area and fills up with crowds of people. You can’t drink alcohol in public on the street, but walking around and having fun is free.

NYE on Granville Street — Granville Street on New Year’s Eve

December 31st at Area Ski Hills

Lower Mainland ski hills are where you can celebrate New Year Eve in the snow. Mt. Seymour used to offer a family-focused event in the past, and Grouse Mountain usually has a few options too. Cypress also hosts a smaller and less formal event. Sasquatch Mountain sometimes has fireworks followed by adult-only partying in the pub.

As of the morning of December 31st, 2023, Sasquatch still hadn’t opened for the ski season yet. Although closed for skiing, it still planned to have fireworks in the evening.

New Year’s Eve at GROUSE MOUNTAIN

The Family New Year’s Eve Celebration at Grouse Mountain includes skiing, the light walk, and fireworks at the skate pond.

In 2023 the skiing ran all day, from 8:00 am until 10:00 pm. The light walk, meanwhile, opened at dusk and closed at 11:00 pm. There were also fireworks at 9:00 pm. This past year, The Observatory restaurant hosted a five-course dinner with complimentary champagne. There were also New Year’s Eve specials at Altitudes Bistro.

To learn more about what’s happening at the ski hill, see our article about Grouse Mountain on New Year’s Eve.

Grouse Light Walk Tunnel — The Light Walk Tunnel at Grouse Mountain

New Year’s Eve at CYPRESS MOUNTAIN

Cypress Mountain hosted another New Year’s Eve evens to close 2023. There were s’mores to roast around fire pits, as well as live entertainment and DJ music. Last year’s event was also going to feature a fireworks display at 6:00 pm. The fireworks, however, were cancelled.

Click Cypress on New Year’s Eve for more information.

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New Year’s Eve at Canada Place and False Creek

The Lower Mainland’s largest New Year’s Eve celebrations used to happen around Canada Place in downtown Vancouver on the evening of December 31st.

NOTE: As mentioned above, the Canada Place fireworks event didn’t take place on New Year’s Eve on December 31st in 2019. The event took a one-year break. It was going to return to Vancouver on December 31st in 2020, but at a new location – at the eastern end of False Creek (near Science World). Now orgnizers say the event won’t happen until December 31st in 2024 after it was again cancelled in 2021, 2022 and 2023. See the Concord Pacific NYE website for details or click New Year’s Eve Fireworks in False Creek.

Up until 2018, the free street party with 20 food trucks, outdoor concerts and over 100,000 people used to take place along Canada Place Way. There were also indoor ticketed events at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

In years when it did take place, the free Street Party ran from around 7:00 pm until 12:15 am, indoor ticketed events went from 7:00 pm until 1:30 am, and fireworks blasted off at both 9:00 pm and 12:00 am.

Click Canada Place at New Year’s Eve for more information about the event from past years or False Creek on New Year’s Eve to learn about what the celebrations will look like in the future.

Other Information

For information about Vancouver’s main fireworks events, and best places to watch them from (in years when they actually take place), click NYE fireworks.

For ideas on other things to do at other times of the year, check out any of the following: