In Sydney, a New Year’s virtuoso

The archipelagos of Samoa, Tonga and Kiribati located in the Pacific are the first to cross the cape of midnight. Sydney in Australia follows close to 16 hours (French time). After a show of aerobatic, a choreography of illuminated boats, fireworks burst in front of the recognizable “opera house”. The next day, the Field Day welcomes the 20,000 festival-goers and artists of international renown. This year, Cardi B, and the DJ Kölsch are expected. Those able to pay $ 250,000 and will be able to escape as early as two o’clock in the morning to borrow the services of a company of private jets that will take them to Los Angeles, where… they will be celebrating the New year a second time.

In Hong Kong, a fairy tale to 1.8 million

The most western of chinese cities is celebrating two new years: the universal calendar, December 31, (in 17 h, heure française). And especially the year of the pig on the chinese calendar, which begins on 16 February. The municipality does not forget to treat the new year’s eve. Rockets will depart from the three skyscrapers before the start of the fireworks, fired from the sea. A fairy tale of 1.8 million dollars.

● Dubai, the thousand and one lights

The ultra-modern city of the Persian gulf like to do things in a big way. Become a popular destination to force infrastructure state of the art and recreational activities, the emirate offers a New Year’s hyperbolic. It will be 21h in France when the fireworks will be competition between the skyscrapers, the Burj-al-Arab in the artificial archipelago of Palm Jumeirah. The Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world with 829 meters, and will be addressed, also, fireworks. In 2014, Dubai was offered the largest pyrotechnic show in the world.

● Beirut, dancing to forget the tensions

Unlike Christmas or Eid, the New Year is the only celebration shared by all Lebanese. Last year, prime minister Saad Hariri had stated that “the festivities of the new year’s eve are the testimony of the security and stability of Lebanon”. The place of the Star, where is located the Parliament, will transform into a dance floor thanks to huge infrastructure. DJ and popular singers, will be playing to celebrate the new year, an hour before the France. Common in Lebanon, where weapons abound, with shots of the celebration are to be expected. A habit against which the authorities are trying to fight. Last year, four people were wounded in Beirut during the new year’s eve.

In Cape town, the New Year celebrated on January 2.

The South Africans are fond of carnivals. The New Year in Cape town, the first city in the country, is no exception to the rule. If the country is going 2019 one hour before the France, the Capétoniens festoieront later. The Cape Town Street Parade welcomes tens of thousands of people at a parade… the 2nd of January. Their colourful dress, their flapping in the dances and catchy. The event lives on in the joy, the memory of a tradition less positive: in the colonial era, until the abolition of slavery in 1835, the slaves could not celebrate the new year on the same day, but only on the next day.

● Paris, to the Champs-Elysées

The 31 in the evening, the avenue des Champs-Élysées will take color more festive than these past weeks. Made pedestrian for the occasion, they should accommodate several hundreds of thousands of people to the sound and light show projected on the Arc de triomphe. The beginning of the festivities at 23: 20. With the thematic of the French values, Freedom, Equality, Fraternity. A fireworks display will conclude the evening. In the large provincial towns, as for several years, no fireworks show was scheduled.

” READ ALSO – For the New Year, to each country its traditions

To Rome, wake up in the eternal city

In the day of the 31st, the athletes will run the We Run Rome, a 10 k race in the Italian capital. At 21h, the Romans will gather at the Circus Maximus, the oldest hippodrome in Rome, a spectacle of sounds and lights is programmed. The concerts followed until in the early morning throughout the city. One hundred electric guitars will play at the tip of the day in the Garden of the Orange trees, on the hills of Rome, works by the contemporary music composer Michele Tadini.

In Vienna, the alliance of the waltz, and punch

to Celebrate the New Year in Vienna is to go dancing at the gala de la Saint-Sylvestre. In the Hofburg, the former imperial residence, the quadrilles whirl. There is no need of quarters of nobility, but simply a ticket of admission from 165 euros per person. The others can console themselves with the punch, a mixture of rum and spices, in the streets of the old town.

The Vienna philharmonic Orchestra will play three times the directory straussien: in rehearsal on the 30th, then the 31st to the evening and finally for the traditional New Year concert on the 1st. Dates are so important – in spite of their price, up to 940 euros for the one day of the year, a random draw shall elect the happy music lovers. Surrounded by the gold of the Musikverein, the New Year concert, under the baton of the German conductor Christian Thielemann, will be broadcast live on tv in 90 countries. France 2 will broadcast live at 11am.

● In Berlin, towards the Brandenburg gate

The 12 strokes of midnight will mark Brandenburg gate, the German of the Arc de triomphe. A tradition more popular: nearly one million people visit each year and throng up to the win Column, two kilometers away. We drink sekt, a sparkling German, listening to dozens of German artists which occur on a giant stage.

Berlin does not want to give anything in Vienna, his cousin. 31 evening, the Berlin Philharmonic gives its own concert of the New year. Without blush. For the occasion, the maestro Daniel Baremboim found the head of his old orchestra. A concert not very germanic since in the program include the French Ravel and the Austrian Mozart. To follow on Arte live 18.10.

” READ ALSO – Top 5 traditions the most amazing for the new year’s eve

● London, 12.000 rockets above the river Thames

The seats closest to the fireworks display are all already sold. 12.000 rockets will be fired from the banks of the river Thames. The bells of Big Ben sound at midnight. It will already be an hour longer in Paris. The Royathe Festival Hall, the residence of the philharmonic Orchestra of London, will transform into a nightclub giant facing the river: bars, tracks and DJ sets. The next day, the London’s New Year’s Day Parade will start from Piccadilly Circus at 12 noon to finish at the palace of Westminster for three and a half hours later. Established in 1987, the event invites hundreds of dancers, acrobats and entertainers of all kinds, representing the neighborhoods of london.

● In Reykjavik, a New Year home made

After you have réveillonné, Icelanders are among friends to discuss around a bonfire. Before returning to put in front of the television to watch the annual broadcast, which offers a recovery on a humorous event of the year. The inhabitants of Reykjavik, which are not more than 130,000 – then return to the city to launch their own fireworks on the street corners around midnight – 1am in the morning, French time.

● In Edinburgh, the’hogmanay’ scottish

“The best New Year in the world,” say the Scots. At least the most crazy. After the torchlight procession in the old city on the 30th of December, about 150,000 people came to celebrate the “Hogmanay”, the last day of the year, in Edinburgh. Midnight when it will be 1am in the morning in Paris. The céilí, dancing, traditional scottish, is in the spotlight. The next day, some will take a refreshing swim – the Loony Dook in the North sea. That does not exceed 7 °C.

● In Rio de Janeiro, the sky illuminated

The weather forecast calls for 25 °C. With more than two million people on Copacabana beach and twenty tons of explosives, Rio beats them all. The Brazilians, all white dressed, attend the fireworks which illuminate the bay, among the most impressive in the world. When the Brazilians will in 2019, it will be three o’clock in the morning in France. The music of western and brazilian resonate along 4 kilometres from the beach. Some bold will surf once the last rocket fired.

● New York, to attend the “ball drop”

Towards New York, to 6,000 km and 6 hours of time difference with Paris. The New year brings a million people to Manhattan. To Times Squares, the Americans patiently wait hours until the “ball drop” during the final count. At midnight, a crystal sphere over 3 metres in diameter, dropped from a building, land on the ground. In Central Park, a little before the fateful hour, the shot of the “Stroke of midnight” is from: many thousands of Americans prefer to celebrate the new year’s eve, the sneakers at the foot.

Launched by Leonard Bernstein in 1984, the New Year’s Concert for peace is held in the cathedral of St. John the Theologian, New York 31 in the evening. The orchestra and the choir of the cathedral will interpret parts of Mozart, Bach, the composer of the Eighteenth century William Boyce and contemporaries David Lang, Robert Convery, and Wayne Oquin. The remaining places can be counted on the fingers of one hand.