New Year’s Eve 2023: Where To Find Events Around Old Town Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Between family-friendly celebrations and adult parties, there's no shortage of New Year's Eve events around Old Town Alexandria to help welcome 2024.

This is the 29th year of First Night Alexandria, a family-friendly New Year's Eve event culminating with fireworks at midnight. The festivities will begin at 2 p.m. on Dec. 31 with a day full of activities, activations, dance parties, live music and more.

New this year will be a twilight fireworks display at 6 p.m. on the Alexandria waterfront. The earlier show is aimed for families who want to enjoy the show with kids.

Other features of this year's event are a Fun Hunt for ticketed attendees and block party at Market Square from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. with music, a "Cool Happy New Year" demonstration and fun before the twilight fireworks display.

Tickets are required to access First Night Alexandria venues, but the fireworks are free to attend. Some of the fireworks viewing areas include Canal Center Plaza (Center Canal Plaza), Rivergate Park (2 Montgomery St.), Oronoco Bay Park (100 Madison St.), Founders Park (351 North Union St.), Waterfront Park (1A Prince St.), Windmill Hill Park (501 South Union St.), Fords Landing boardwalk (99 Franklin St.), Jones Point Park (Jones Point Dr.) and George Washington Masonic Temple (101 Callahan Dr.).

Road closures for the event include: the 100 block of N. Royal Street from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., 200 and 300 block of King Street from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., 100 block of N. Fairfax Street from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., and Union Street between Duke and Prince Streets from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Here is a look at some additional events happening near Alexandria:

• Olde Year's Day at Torpedo Factory Art Center
• Jula's on the Potomac New Year's Eve Champagne and Fireworks
• Volas New Years Eve Party
• New Year's Eve Cocktail Party at Light Horse
• Havana 151 New Year's Eve Fiesta
• Evening Star Cafe's New Year's Eve Bash (wait list only)
• Big Night DC New Year's Eve Extravaganza at Gaylord National Harbor
• New Year’s Comedy Show: Antoine Scott at Workhouse Arts Center
• Seventh Annual Wilson Wonderland NYE Celebration
• Watch Night Falls Church
• Noon Yards Eve at the Yards DC

In the United States, one of the most popular New Year’s Eve traditions is the dropping of the giant ball in New York City’s Times Square. Other U.S. cities have adopted iterations of the ball drop — the Chick Drop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the giant Potato Drop in Boise, Idaho, for example.

Virginia's twist on the ball drop includes events like Chincoteague Island's Pony Island Horseshoe Drop & Costume Promenade, Cape Charles's Dropping of the Crab Pot, Fincastle's New Year's Eve Bell Ringing and Portsmouth's Olde Towne Scottish Walk.

The end of one year and beginning of another is often celebrated with the singing of “Auld Lang Syne,” a Scottish folk song whose title roughly translates to “days gone by,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica and History.com.

The history of New Year’s resolutions dates back 8,000 years to ancient Babylonians, who would make promises to return borrowed objects and pay outstanding debts at the beginning of the new year, in mid-March when they planted their crops.

According to legend, if they kept their word, pagan gods would grant them favor in the coming year. If they broke the promise, they would fall out of God’s favor, according to a history of New Year’s resolutions compiled by North Hampton Community College New Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Many secular New Year’s resolutions focus on imagining new, improved versions of ourselves.

The failure rate of New Year’s resolutions is about 80 percent, according to U.S. News & World Report. There are myriad reasons, but a big one is they’re made out of remorse — for gaining weight, for example — and aren’t accompanied by a shift in attitude and a plan to meet the stress and discomfort of changing a habit or condition.