So, Christmas is done, and now our thoughts turn to the great, big shiny New Year hurtling our way. If 2018 wasn’t everything you’d hoped, fear not, because 2019 will be the year where everything happens just the way you want it. So, say a fond, fun farewell to 2018 and hello 2019 – this is definitely going to be your year!
Party big time on the River
When it comes to fireworks, New Year in London centres around the River. Official tickets are now sold out but that doesn’t mean you can’t see them – you just have to think laterally, or alternatively be rich! The BFI’s new Riverfront bar is hosting a New Year’s Eve party – tickets are £120 – or you can, potter up to the Royal Festival Hall, which will transform itself to a five-floor club venue for the night. (£105)
Enjoy some rooftop fireworks
If all that is a little rich for your blood then there are alternatives. Over at adult rooftop playground Skylight, they’re hosting a New Year’s Eve Party that includes a glass of posh fizz on arrival. They’ll also be showing the fireworks on big screens. (£30)
Kitsch it up at New Year
If your idea of welcoming in the New Year involves dancing, drinking and belting out stone-cold soft rock classics, then NYE with Guilty Pleasures in Camden may be for you! Expect sequins, cabaret stars – and an appearance by the Beyoncé Experience. (£20)
Flamboyant funtimes at Somerset House
Over at Somerset House, they’re going all-out for their NYE Extravaganza hosted by LGBTQ+ collective Sink The Pink. Ice skating, fierce DJ sets, drag acts and full-on fabulousness is the order of the day in this iconic London venue. Start 2019 how you mean to go on! (£70)
Go full-on cockney in East London
Cor blimey, guv’nor, I'll tell you when us Londoners were at our very best – during the war! OK, calm down grandad – but maybe he’s right? The organisers of the Blitz Party certainly agree – they’re hosting a wartime shindig in east London including forties dancing, clipped tones and foxtrotting men in uniform in a newly constructed air raid shelter! (£55, or £75 with a pre-party dance lesson)
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