Premium tickets are being introduced to watch London’s New Year’ Eve fireworks – with revellers having to pay up to £50 for the best views.
In another change for the 2024/25 spectacular, higher rates will be charged for the first time for visitors to the capital, who will pay £15 per ticket more than Londoners.
Mayor Sadiq Khan has decided to adopt a “golden circle”-style approach used in stadium concerts to boost the expected revenue from the event in a bid to cover the growing cost of security and crowd management.
The best views – from Victoria Embankment, between Westminster Bridge and Golden Jubilee Footbridge, and from Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge, will cost £50 for out-of-towners and £35 for Londoners.
Other tickets – for the eastern section of Victoria Embankment, the area behind the London Eye and for the accessible viewing area on the Albert Embankment, in front of St Thomas’s hospital – will cost £35 for visitors and £20 for Londoners.
All spectators will have to enter their chosen area between 8pm and 10.30pm.
The first batch of tickets will go on sale at midday next Friday, October 18. They will be sold via Ticketmaster. A second batch will go on sale at a date to be announced in December.
Unwanted tickets can be resold through Ticketmaster.
Up to four tickets can be bought per person. People without a ticket will not be able to access the riverside area. The event is “not suitable” for young children.
All tickets for last year’s event cost £20, which was a £5 increase on the price on the cost of attending the 2022/23 display.
There are six viewing areas:
* Blue covers Victoria Embankment from Westminster Bridge to Golden Jubilee Footbridge.
* Pink provides access to Waterloo Bridge.
* White provides access to Westminster Bridge.
* Red covers Victoria Embankment from Golden Jubilee Footbridge to Temple Avenue.
* Green covers the area behind the lastminute.com London Eye.
* Orange (accessible viewing area) covers Albert Embankment, river side of St Thomas’s Hospital.
The blue, pink and white areas will cost £50 to non-Londoners – defined as living at an address without a London postcode - and £35 to Londoners.
The red, green and orange areas cost £35 to non-Londoners or £20 to Londoners.
The display, which has been ticketed since 2014, is used to showcase the capital to the rest of the country and globally.
The music and light display – which starts with the midnight chimes of Big Ben – was the most watched TV programme in the UK last year, with 12.1 million views.
Mr Khan said: “Our New Year’s Eve fireworks celebrations are renowned across the globe, with many millions watching how our capital welcomes in the new year.
“I’m proud that our spectacular display of fireworks, lighting and music gets better every year, boosting our hospitality and tourism industries and showing why London is the greatest city on Earth.
“The only way to enjoy this fantastic show in person is to buy a ticket, so I urge anyone wanting to attend to secure their tickets as early as possible.”
Staging the New Year’ Eve fireworks normally costs City Hall in excess of £4m, of which more than £1m has been recouped from ticket sales – a figure that is likely to be higher this year. About 100,000 tickets are normally made available and the event typically sells out.
City Hall said that some ticket prices had been increased to “enhance security and crowd management around the event, and cover increasing costs seen across the industry”.
Costs are rising because of the impending introduction of Martyn’s Law, in the wake of the Manchester Arena attack. This requires new security measures at major events to help keep people safe.
From 2003-2013, before ticketing was introduced, the event was hugely oversubscribed, with up to 500,000 people heading into central London to try and catch the display.
This year, attendees will again be able to donate to TAP London, a charity dedicated to supporting homeless Londoners.
Robin Goodchild, senior general manager of the London Eye, said 2025 also marked its 25th anniversary.
He said: “A dazzling display of colour and storytelling will illuminate the night sky, and for both those watching here in London and for TV audiences around the globe.”
