New Year’s Eve 2026 in Los Angeles

By the ULTIMATE Los Angeles Editorial Team

N.Y.E.L.A.: the countdown in Grand Park

The city’s own New Year’s Eve is N.Y.E.L.A. in Gloria Molina Grand Park, which runs from the Music Center down to City Hall. The Countdown to 2027 opens at 8pm and runs until 1am, rain or shine. No ticket is needed and entry is free; the park asks you to RSVP online, and warns against anyone selling tickets.

There are two stages. The Get Down Stage, curated by STARDUST and hosted by Shaun Ross, has CLAX10, Ashley Younnia, Shaun Ross himself and DJ Wayne Williams after midnight. The Countdown Stage, curated by Ceci Bastida and hosted by DJ Gingee, brings Ceci Bastida, BARDO and Ruby Ibarra. At 11.55pm the Midnight Countdown Spectacle, a projection by A3 Visual on the face of City Hall titled The Power of One, carries the crowd into the new year.

Our advice: take the Metro. Civic Center/Grand Park station is on the B and D lines, and the A and E lines stop at Grand Av Arts/Bunker Hill. If you drive, the Music Center and Walt Disney Concert Hall garages charge a flat $10 that night.

Grand Park: N.Y.E.L.A. →

A Yacht Rock NYE at Walt Disney Concert Hall

As part of its Deck the Hall series, the LA Phil presents, on Thursday 31 December at 7pm, A Yacht Rock NYE with Christopher Cross, the singer of “Sailing”, joined by the Pacific Jazz Orchestra under its artistic director and conductor Chris Walden. The concert lasts about an hour and a half to two hours, so there is time for dinner on Grand Avenue, or to walk across to Grand Park, afterwards.

Our advice: tickets are sold only through the LA Phil’s own site; book early for seats facing the stage.

LA Phil: A Yacht Rock NYE with Christopher Cross →

Galas and dinners: the Beverly Wilshire and beyond

The Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel, at the foot of Rodeo Drive, turns THE Blvd into an Electric Garden from 7pm to 1am, with flowers, lights and stilt performers, a four-course menu by executive chef Colin Bedford, a band until 9.30pm and then a DJ, and a glass of Telmont Champagne for the balloon drop at midnight. The dress code is “Future Glam”. It costs $405 per person, $200 for children aged 6 to 12.

In the same hotel, CUT by Wolfgang Puck serves Ever After at Midnight, a four-course dinner from 5.30pm: the first seating is $295 per adult ($95 for children 12 and under); the second, for over-21s, is $345 and includes the CUT Lounge after dinner and a midnight toast. The Lounge itself parties from 9pm to 1am, with jazz and then a DJ, from $395 a head at a table or $495 in a booth with a bottle of Telmont.

North-west of the city, in the Conejo Valley, the Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village holds its Midnight Royale Gala in The Hamptons Ballroom from 9pm to 1am: a red-carpet arrival and Champagne reception, live jazz and a DJ, stations of caviar, lobster rolls and a raw bar, and a midnight toast, at $495 per person plus tax and gratuity. Its brasserie Coin & Candor serves a four-course dinner at 8pm ($395).

Our advice: the grand Beverly Hills hotels, The Beverly Hills Hotel, Hotel Bel-Air, The Peninsula and the Waldorf Astoria among them, had not published their 2026 New Year’s Eve plans when we checked; we will add them as they are confirmed.

Beverly Wilshire: festive season 2026 →   Four Seasons Westlake Village: New Year’s Eve →

New Year’s Day: the Rose Parade in Pasadena

The 138th Rose Parade sets off at 8am on Friday 1 January 2027 from Orange Grove and Colorado boulevards and runs for 5½ miles along Colorado Boulevard, a procession of flower-covered floats, marching bands and riders. Reserved grandstand seats are sold through the Tournament of Roses’ own tickets page; the parade is also broadcast live.

The parade has its own run of events. Bandfest, where the marching bands perform, is on 29 and 30 December at 1570 E. Colorado Boulevard, and Equestfest, with the parade’s horses and riders, is on Tuesday 29 December. After the parade, Floatfest puts the floats on show on Sierra Madre and Washington boulevards from 1.30pm on 1 January until 4pm on Sunday 3 January; all three are ticketed.

In the afternoon, the Rose Bowl Game, traditionally played on New Year’s Day in the stadium in the Arroyo Seco, is a College Football Playoff quarter-final this season. Its kick-off time and tickets are on the game’s own site.

Our advice: for the parade, book a grandstand seat or arrive in the dark; the floats are just as beautiful up close at Floatfest, with more room to look.

Tournament of Roses: the Rose Parade →   Tournament of Roses: tickets and events →   Rose Bowl Game →

Getting around on New Year’s Eve

Los Angeles is a city of long distances, and on New Year’s Eve traffic and ride-hailing prices rise with the hour. Choose one neighbourhood for the night: downtown for Grand Park and the Concert Hall, Beverly Hills for a hotel dinner, and stay close to where you celebrate. Downtown, the Metro serves Grand Park directly.

Our advice: if you want both the countdown and the Rose Parade, sleep in Pasadena or downtown, and read the Tournament of Roses’ Parade Day Guide for road closures and where to stand. For the rest of the season, see our Christmas in Los Angeles page.

Tournament of Roses: Parade Day Guide →   Christmas in Los Angeles →

Questions and answers