Reykjavík has no official New Year's Eve fireworks show. Instead, residents buy hundreds of tons of fireworks and set them all off at midnight, from every street and garden at once. The sales fund Iceland's volunteer rescue teams. Add neighborhood bonfires, a comedy broadcast that empties the streets, and four hours of daylight, and you have one of the strangest, best New Year's Eves anywhere. Here is how the night works.
There is no official fireworks show in Reykjavík. No city display, no barge in the harbor, no drone show. The residents put on the show themselves. Icelanders buy roughly 500 tons of fireworks each December and fire most of them in a single hour around midnight on December 31. Rockets go up from gardens, sidewalks, parking lots, and hilltops across the whole city at once. There is no single point to watch. The sky is the venue.
The system behind it has run for decades. Fireworks in Iceland are sold almost exclusively by ICE-SAR, the national association of volunteer search-and-rescue teams. The December sales are their main fundraiser of the year. More on that below, because it changes how you should think about buying a few rockets yourself.
New Year's Eve in Reykjavík follows a fixed rhythm. Locals move through it almost on schedule. Plan your night around it.
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 19:00–20:30 | Dinner. Restaurants that open run set New Year's menus, booked out weeks ahead. |
| 20:30 | Neighborhood bonfires (brennur) are lit across the city. |
| 21:30–22:30 | People head home or to hotels. Scattered early fireworks begin. |
| 22:30–23:35 | Áramótaskaup, the national comedy special, airs on RÚV. The streets empty. |
| 23:30–00:00 | The show ends. Everyone goes outside. The fireworks build fast. |
| 00:00 | Midnight. Church bells ring, and the entire sky erupts at once. |
| 00:00–00:30 | Peak barrage. Smoke drifts over the whole city. |
| 01:00 onward | Downtown bars and parties fill. They run to 04:00 or later. |
Two notes on that table. First, dinner: reserve when you book the trip, in September or October, not on arrival. Many restaurants close for the night; the ones that open sell out. Second, the 22:30 slot is real. Áramótaskaup has skewered the year's news on national TV since 1966, and around 90 percent of the country watches it live. If you walk downtown at 23:00 and wonder where everyone went, that is where.
Before the fireworks, there are fires. On the evening of December 31, Reykjavík lights roughly ten public bonfires, called áramótabrennur, in open spaces around the city. They are lit at 20:30, weather permitting. Families walk over after dinner, stand in the cold, talk, and sometimes sing. Some fires are modest. Others are multi-story stacks of pallets that burn with real force.
Locations change from year to year. The city publishes the official list on reykjavik.is in late December, so check it a few days out. Bonfires are cancelled if winds exceed about 10 meters per second, and drones are banned over the sites. Pick the fire nearest your hotel. This is a neighborhood event, and the closest one is the right one.
ICE-SAR (Slysavarnafélagið Landsbjörg) runs about 100 volunteer rescue teams across Iceland. Thousands of unpaid members answer more than 1,200 callouts a year: stranded drivers, lost hikers, storm damage, mountain and glacier rescues. The association is largely self-funded, and the fireworks sold from booths across the capital in the last days of December are its biggest source of income. Sales have topped 800 million krónur, about six million dollars, in a single season.
Buying fireworks here is participation, not littering. Every rocket sold at an ICE-SAR booth equips the volunteers who pull travelers out of ditches and off glaciers all year. Locals treat the purchase as a donation with a bang. Buy a small pack, join in at midnight, and you are funding the rescue teams, not adding to the mess. Prefer not to shoot anything off? The teams accept straight donations too.
Booths open around December 28, and consumer fireworks are legal to use through the first days of January. Follow the printed instructions, take the safety glasses offered, and launch from open ground away from cars and crowds.
The hill by Hallgrímskirkja is the classic spot. You stand inside the launch zone, rockets rising from every street below while the church bells ring. It is loud, smoky, crowded, and it is the full experience. Perlan, on Öskjuhlíð hill, gives you elevation and a 360-degree panorama of the whole city firing at once — better for photos, less visceral. Any rise with a clear view works. The show surrounds you regardless.
Christmas is the opposite of New Year's Eve. It is quiet, private, and family-centered. The main celebration is the evening of December 24: shops close by early afternoon and the city goes still. December 25 is the shut-down day. Nearly all shops, grocery stores, and museums are closed, along with most restaurants. December 26 is a public holiday too, with only limited reopening. Hotels operate normally and hotel restaurants serve, but book ahead. Buy any groceries by the morning of the 24th.
The days before Christmas have their own texture. From December 12 to 24, the thirteen Yule Lads come down from the mountains one per night, leaving small gifts in children's shoes on windowsills. Downtown stays lit and busy through December 23. If you plan Golden Circle or south coast day trips around the holidays, read our guide to driving in Iceland in winter first. The roads, not the closures, are the real variable.
Daylight is short. Around the solstice, the sun rises about 11:20 and sets about 15:30 — just over four hours, with long blue twilight on either side. Put outdoor plans in the middle of the day and treat everything after 16:00 as evening.
Weather can override everything. Storms cancel bonfires, ground tours, and close roads with little notice. Check the current weather warnings and road conditions before every drive, and build one buffer day into the itinerary.
Book early. New Year's is peak season: hotels sell out months ahead and prices top out. If you are planning a December trip from the US, have flights, hotel, and the December 31 dinner locked by early October. Our guide to where to stay in Reykjavík covers the neighborhoods; for this trip, a walkable downtown base is worth the premium, because nobody should be driving at midnight on the 31st.
One more possibility. It is fully dark by 16:30, so any clear evening can produce northern lights. City glow and midnight firework smoke work against you downtown; an evening tour out of town earlier in the week is the better bet. Check the aurora forecast each afternoon.
No. There is no city-organized display and no drone show. The entire spectacle is private fireworks, set off by residents everywhere at once, roughly from 23:30 to 00:30. Do not wait for an organized event to start. Midnight is the event.
Nearly. On December 25, shops, grocery stores, and museums are closed, and most restaurants are too. Hotels run normally and hotel restaurants serve, usually set menus with advance booking. December 26 is also a holiday with limited hours. Shop for essentials by the morning of December 24.
Yes. Anyone can buy consumer fireworks at ICE-SAR booths, which open around December 28, and use them legally through the first days of January. No permit is needed. Follow the instructions, use the safety glasses, and launch from open ground.
Usually around freezing, roughly 28 to 37°F. Wind is the bigger factor than temperature. You will stand outside for hours between the bonfire and midnight, so dress in warm layers with a windproof shell, a hat, and gloves.
Hallgrímskirkja hill puts you inside the barrage; Perlan gives a panoramic view over the whole city. Both fill up before midnight. There is no wrong spot — the fireworks come from every direction, so any open viewpoint works.