A quarter-century of family-friendly New Year’s Eves in Hawke’s Bay

The countdown to seeing out 2024 and welcoming the New Year has started with the erection of lighting towers and other equipment for the 25th anniversary of the resurrection of Napier’s Marine Parade Sound Shell civic celebration.

The celebration was reinstated on the eve of the new millennium at the end of 1999.

No break for workmen getting Napier’s Marine Parade Sound Shell ready for New Year’s Eve celebrations. Photo / Doug Laing

Hit annually by drunken and disorderly behaviour, civic celebrations on the parade had been scrapped for more than a decade before steps were taken to capture the moment marking the end of the 1900s and arrival of the year 2000 (or Y2K) in an alcohol-free and family-friendly environment.

It’s now established as Hawke’s Bay’s major celebration, with events in Hastings, at Tomoana Showgrounds, scheduled to give people time to get to Napier for the big one.

Despite packing in more than 10,000 people on the most summery of December 31 evenings each year for a quarter-century, it’s worked with little to no sign of the scuffles and trouble that plagued the earlier years. It’s ready to kick off with the now-regular two fireworks displays and five hours of entertainment, starting at 7pm.

Its popularity has attracted two well-performed and durable outfits escaping Auckland for the night, in the covers band Hands Off, themselves with 25 years under the belt, and the Phil Edwards Band.

Joining them will be Hawke’s Bay acts El’Goobers, a rock band, and Danica Bryant Band, a pop-folk powerhouse with a rock edge.

The first fireworks display targets the whole whānau, especially the littlies who might want an early night, and lights up at 9.45pm. The second will ring in 2025.

The vicinity of the Sound Shell will be vehicle-free. Marine Parade from Browning St to Vautier St, Tennyson St from Hastings St to the Parade, and Herschell St from Emerson St to Tennyson St will be closed to traffic from 4pm to 1am, with detours in place. A liquor ban will be in place apart from within licensed premises.

Hastings stages its New Year’s Eve event at the Fiesta of Lights at the showgrounds from 7.45-11pm, with a $7 charge. There will be family movies, entertainment by Napier band Pulse, other activities targeting family and the younger ones, and a fireworks display.