New Year’s Eve in Iceland

Icelanders welcome the New Year with a big BANG. The sky will be lit up almost everywhere you’ll go and wherever you look and every year Icelanders blow up more than an astonishing 600 tonnes of fireworks on New Years eve! Bought from the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue teams who finance their operations by selling fireworks. And every year Icelanders want to do it bigger than the year before – and of course, make a bigger bang than their neighbours.

New Year’s celebrations

Icelanders will meet up with family or friends to have dinner around 18:00. Around 21:00 locals gather at their nearest bonfire to meet and greet friends and shoot some fireworks. After the bonfire the streets empty, because all the locals go home to watch a comedy TV show: Áramótaskaup or New Years Sketch Comedy. This is an hour long comedy show in remembrance of the major events that happened in the year that just passed. This is an absolute holy moment, as soon as the tv special is finished preparations begin for the main event. The sparkling wine is taken out of the fridge, glasses out of the cupboards. Everyone puts on their coats and gloves. Family and friends gather out in front of the house or out on the balcony. Excited kids and adults that are still young at heart get ready to light the fireworks ablaze whilst the rest of the party cheers from a safe distance. At midnight, the capital of Iceland is lit with countless fireworks and wherever you look the sky will be filled with the grandest light show you will ever see.