Reykjavík
New Year's bonfire + midnight fireworks
The single wildest New Year's Eve in any European capital. Community fire, hot cocoa, fireworks from high ground.
More about this plan
Icelanders do not do New Year's Eve in halves. Around ten in the evening, every neighbourhood lights a massive community bonfire — the biggest is Ægisíðan on the western seafront, a three-storey pyre with singing, hot chocolate, and half the neighbourhood out in parkas. The fires are a cross between a civic tradition and a release of everything the year held.
Stay until eleven-thirty. Then walk or drive up to Hallgrímskirkja — the church forecourt on the hill sits high enough that from eleven-forty onwards you watch the entire city explode. Icelanders spend thousands per household on private fireworks (the proceeds support the volunteer rescue service, which is why they are entirely legal), and at midnight roughly 500 tonnes of them go up simultaneously, from every garden and rooftop and parking lot. It is not a show. It is the whole sky.
Bring a hip flask. Bring a kiss. Bring eye protection if you are the cautious type.
The plan, stop by stop
- 1
Ægisíðan community bonfire
The biggest of the neighbourhood bonfires, on the western seafront. Starts lighting around 8:30pm, peaks 9-10pm.
- 2
Fireworks from Hallgrímskirkja hill
The church forecourt sits above the city. From 11:40pm the sky fills with privately-set fireworks — a 360° show that peaks at midnight.