New Years Eve Plaça España laser show and fireworks display

About New Years Eve Plaça España fireworks display

Spanish new years eve traditions

In Spain, when celebrating new years eve (Nochevieja), midnight is the start of the evening and not the end so sleep well during the day! Dinner time is around 8 to 11:30 in the evening.

The countdown to midnight is marked with 12 chimes of a bell (Las Campanadas) where you eat and swallow one white grape on each chime of the bell to welcome in the new year. The grapes symbolise good luck for the coming twelve months.

After the Campanadas people go out to a nightclub or late opening bar till typically 6 in the morning.

Las Campanadas fireworks display in Barcelona

The most popular tradition is to chime in the new Year at the free public fireworks display that is held in Plaça España and Aveninda de la Reina Maria Cristina by the Venetian Towers.

This event although free is very popular with people filling Aveninda de la Reina Maria Cristina well before midnight to stake out a spot to view the fireworks. Once this wide avenue is full of people, the police use crowd control barriers to prevent too many people from trying to enter.

Arriving at 21:30h is the only way to really guarantee a spot in Aveninda de la Reina Maria Cristina which give the best views of the MNAC building, the magic fountains light and water display and the fireworks display.

There is a pre-show starting with music and magic fountains light and laser show with music that starts around 22:00h with a pre countdown build up starting at 11:45h. A short pyrotechnics fireworks show lasts till about 15 minutes past midnight with large explosions timed for the 12 chimes.

For those that do not want to get to Aveninda de la Reina Maria Cristina at 21:30h (and wait 2.5 hours for a 15 minute fireworks display) the over spill crowd that cannot get into Aveninda de la Reina Maria Cristina can stand in in Plaça España, which is closed to road traffic and is also full of people by midnight, but has partially restricted views of the fireworks looking towards the Venetian Towers.

Personally, being the kind of person that is not capable of standing still in the same place for three hours, I have attended the fireworks on multiple occasions arriving at 11:30 to 11:45 and finding standing room in Plaça España.

For the 2022 end of year fireworks, I also walked a long way round to the back of MNAC passing outside of all the police cordons to see if there was a better view. From Behind MNAC you can see the fireworks with the silhouette of the MNAC building but without the light pollution of Plaça España.

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