UK welcomes new year with celebrations across the country

Millions of people across the UK have officially rung in the new year, gathering at firework events and parties all over the country.

In London, 12,000 fireworks were set off in the city’s biggest pyrotechnic display to date, with 100,000 people watching on from the banks of the Thames.

Edinburgh Castle was lit up by six minutes of carefully choreographed explosions, surrounded by tens of thousands of revellers attending the famous Hogmanay street party.

Other celebrations took place across the country, from Belfast to Cardiff, Manchester and Newcastle.

As the iconic midnight bongs of Big Ben sounded across London, the London Eye was at the centre of Europe’s biggest firework display, which celebrated some of the highlights of 2025.

The soundtrack included the likes of Raye, Sabrina Carpenter, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay, and featured voice overs from stars such as Celia Imrie, Andrew Cotter and Alison Hammond.

England’s Women’s Rugby World Cup triumph was acknowledged in the display, along with the Lionesses’ win at the Euros and Cynthia Erivo’s incredible performance in Wicked: For Good.

The Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, hailed the display as the most “legendary” in the world, writing on X that the city’s new year celebrations held a clear message about “the importance of togetherness”.

Edinburgh held its last official celebration in 2023, after last year saw “extreme weather” force organisers to cancel Hogmanay celebrations.

This year, approximately 45,000 people attended the sold-out street party, and some of the fireworks used in the display were salvaged from last year’s cancelled event.

The spectacle was accompanied by a soundtrack that featured some of Scotland’s biggest artists, such as Lewis Capaldi and Simple Minds, before concluding with a version of Auld Lang Syne by Skye duo Valtos.

Liverpudlians Cheryl and Terry Brown were among those making merry in the Scottish capital, soaking up all four days of the city’s celebrations alongside their seven-year-old son, Oliver.

“We done it a few years ago and we just had to come back,” Terry told the BBC, explaining that the family had celebrated in Belfast and London on previous years but Edinburgh’s party atmosphere has kept them coming up.

And they aren’t the only ones; Cosmio and Neal, two friends from New Jersey, crossed the pond specifically to ring in 2026 from Edinburgh.

“The dancing, the people, the energy, the vibe – it’s just the best way to bring in the New Year together,” said Neal.

Cosmio added that pair have made travelling for New Year a regular thing but says the energy from the street party in Edinburgh is “a thousand times better” than watching the famous ball drop in New York’s Times Square.

The energy will be much needed, with new year expected to bring nationwide cold snaps, with yellow warnings for snow and ice issued by the Met Office across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland to be in force between midnight on 1 January and noon on 2 January.

Colder Arctic air will spread across the UK from New Year’s Day with significant snowfall expected in northern Scotland, according to BBC Weather.

New snow and ice warning is in place for a large swathe of England and Wales, including Chester and Greater Manchester down to London and Kent.

Celebrations have already taken place in much of the rest of the world, too. Japan and South Korea marked the event with bell-ringing ceremonies in their capital cities, while Australians celebrated with a spectacular firework display in Sydney.

Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro was lit up by a similarly enormous series of pyrotechnics, with organisers are hoping to beat their 2024 Guinness World Record for the biggest New Year’s Eve celebration.

On the RRS Sir David Attenborough, stationed in the Antarctic, the crew and science teams rang in the new year with the ship’s bell.

By midday GMT, it will officially be 2026 worldwide.