Few official New Year’s Eve fireworks in Switzerland

Few official New Year's Eve fireworks in Switzerland Keystone-SDA

New Year's Eve fireworks are no longer a given in large Swiss cities. Basel, for example, has done away with this tradition altogether for years, and there are no fireworks in Bern, Lausanne and St Gallen either.

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In central Switzerland, the only city to offer this spectacle is Lucerne. Zurich and Geneva are also not planning to give up the tradition.

The highlight of the “New Year’s Magic” in the city of Zurich is the fireworks display after midnight in the lake basin. During the day, food and drinks are offered at numerous stands. At 8 pm on December 31, celebrations begin at various locations.

In central Switzerland, only Lucerne organises a public fireworks display to mark the start of the New Year. On New Year’s Eve, the sky above Lake Lucerne lights up with fireworks. However, the event is not organised by the city, but by the tourist board and hotels in the city of Lucerne.

In the canton of Bern, a big fireworks display will take place on January 1, 2026 in Interlaken at the conclusion of the “Touch the Mountains” music festival. In the city of Bern and others in the canton, however, no official fireworks are planned.

In Basel, New Year’s Eve fireworks have not been held for years and their lighting by private individuals is strictly regulated. In Liestal, the capital of Basel Country, fireworks are even completely banned.

The three largest towns in the canton of St Gallen – St Gallen itself, Rapperswil and Wil – do not organise any official fireworks displays on New Year’s Eve. Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau also dispenses with them.

In Lausanne, there is no firework display, but there is the famous “burning” of the cathedral: this is a spectacle in which the cathedral appears to go up in flames thanks to a play of light and which can be witnessed at midnight while sipping mulled wine.

The city of Geneva, on the other hand, will not give up its fireworks: on December 31, it will once again organise a party on the lakeside. At the Gustave-Ador Pier there will be music stages, karaoke and food trucks. This year’s New Year’s Eve will be under the motto “Ensemble on brille!” (in Italian: “Insieme brilliamo!”).

There will be no official fireworks in Fribourg, Neuchâtel and La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Firework displays have long fallen out of favour, especially among animal advocates and owners. They claim that dogs and cats shiver and hide, while farm animals such as horses or calves are disturbed. Environmentalists criticise soil and air pollution. In addition, noise-sensitive people suffer.

In December 2023, the signature collection of the popular initiative “For a limitation of fireworks” succeeded. In mid-December of this year, the House of Representatives approved an indirect counter-proposal that intends to dispense with the ban on the sale and use of fireworks to private individuals, as the text would have it, but prohibits those intended solely to produce a burst without a light effect, such as firecrackers. The Senate has yet to decide on this issue.

According to a poll, almost 70% of Swiss voters support the idea of protecting the population, animals and nature from the harmful effects of fireworks.

Adapted from Italian by AI/jdp

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