New Year’s Eve 2026 in Venice

By the ULTIMATE Venice Editorial Team

Midnight fireworks over St Mark’s Basin

The city of Venice organises one public New Year fireworks display. Its rules for 1 October 2026 to 30 April 2027 ban fireworks of categories F2, F3 and F4 and allow only two council-promoted displays, for New Year and Epiphany. When we checked, the council had not yet published its programme for the night of Thursday 31 December 2026.

In the last two years the show followed the same form: about twenty minutes of fireworks at midnight, fired from a pontoon in the Bacino di San Marco so that the light falls across the water. The council named the best places to watch as the area around the Arsenale and the Riva degli Schiavoni, Riva Ca’ di Dio, Riva San Biagio and Riva dei Sette Martiri; the display could not be seen from the Piazza or the Piazzetta.

Stewards, access gates with limited capacity and security checks managed the crowds along the waterfront, and extra waterbus services ran to and from the historic centre before and after the show.

Our advice: take up your place on the Riva well before 11.30pm, and leave your own fireworks at home; they are banned across the city all winter.

Comune di Venezia: 2026–27 rules on fireworks →   Comune di Venezia: last year’s New Year’s Eve →

La Fenice’s New Year’s Concert

The New Year’s Concert at Teatro La Fenice is Venice’s great musical occasion of the winter. For 2027 Gianandrea Noseda conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of La Fenice, with chorus master Elena Pierini, in four performances: Tuesday 29 December 2026 at 8pm, Wednesday 30 December at 5pm, Thursday 31 December at 4pm and Friday 1 January 2027 at 11.15am.

Prices are set by night. On New Year’s Eve, seats run from €25 for audio-only places in the galleries to €400 in the stalls and front box seats; on New Year’s Day, from €50 to €550. On 29 and 30 December the top price is €300. For the 1 January concert, each buyer may take at most four seats.

Tickets went on sale on 24 February 2026, online, at the box offices of La Fenice and Piazzale Cialdini in Mestre, and by phone on +39 041 2722699.

Our advice: the 4pm New Year’s Eve concert ends in good time for dinner and the fireworks; dark dress is welcome at La Fenice, and jacket and tie for men.

Teatro La Fenice: New Year’s Concert 2027 →   Teatro La Fenice: New Year’s Concert prices →   Tickets for La Fenice and concerts in Venice →

A gala on the Grand Canal: Aman Venice

At Aman Venice in Palazzo Papadopoli, New Year’s Eve begins at 7pm with an aperitivo overlooking the Grand Canal garden, followed by a gala dinner with live music at Arva, the hotel’s restaurant. As the countdown begins, guests can step aboard from the hotel’s private jetty for a cruise across the lagoon to watch the fireworks above the Salute.

Back in the palazzo the night ends with zampone e lenticchie, pork and lentils, the Italian dish for prosperity in the year ahead. The boat ride is not included in the New Year’s Eve package, and the hotel recommends booking at least seven days ahead; it does not publish a price.

Our advice: Venice’s other grand hotels, among them the Gritti Palace, the Danieli, The St. Regis and the Hilton Molino Stucky, had not published 2026 New Year’s Eve programmes when we checked. We will add them as they are confirmed.

Aman Venice: festive season 2026–27 →   Aman Venice: festive programme 2026 →

Vivaldi and a New Year’s concert in costume

For music on the night itself, the Vivaldi Baroque Ensemble plays The Four Seasons at 7pm on New Year’s Eve in the church of the Pietà on the Riva degli Schiavoni, a short walk from the fireworks.

I Musici Veneziani, who play in eighteenth-century costume, give their Concerto per il Nuovo Anno on 31 December 2026 and 1 January 2027 at 5.30pm (doors 5pm) in the Scuola Grande di San Teodoro, by Campo San Salvador. Fourteen musicians, a soprano, a tenor and a baritone move from Cimarosa, Mozart and Galuppi to Strauss polkas, Lehár and Verdi’s Libiamo; tickets are €45 to €60.

Our advice: both concerts end before dinner, so you can hear Vivaldi and still be on the Riva by midnight.

Interpreti Veneziani: concerts on 31 December 2026 →   I Musici Veneziani: Concerto per il Nuovo Anno →

New Year’s Day 2027

Friday 1 January 2027 begins, for many Venetians, at La Fenice: the New Year’s Concert at 11.15am, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. In the afternoon, I Musici Veneziani repeat their New Year concert at 5.30pm at the Scuola Grande di San Teodoro.

At Aman Venice, Arva serves a New Year’s Day brunch from 11am with a glass of Champagne. On Saturday 2 January the palazzo hosts a charity concert by the Coro Manos Blancas del Friuli, open to non-resident guests: hot chocolate at 4pm, then opera and festive carols from 5pm to 5.30pm.

Our advice: Epiphany on 6 January is the season’s last feast in Venice; the council’s rules allow a second public fireworks display for it.

Teatro La Fenice: New Year’s Concert 2027 →   Aman Venice: festive programme 2026 →

Practical: booking and getting about

New Year is one of the busiest nights of the Venetian year: book your hotel, your concert seats and any dinner well ahead. La Fenice’s New Year’s Day concert sells out first.

Venice is a walking city; on the night, allow time for the crowds and for the access gates along the waterfront, and check the waterbus timetable for the extra services that usually run after the fireworks.

Our advice: for the season before, see our Christmas in Venice page.

Christmas in Venice →   Christmas church music in Venice →

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