Vancouver to ring in 2025 without family-friendly events downtown

While Vancouver’s mayor claims that the city has ditched its “no fun city” reputation, there are still no official family-friendly events on New Year’s Eve.

The last event saw the clock turn to 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

That year, Concord Pacific hosted the event at Canada Place, which it then dropped due to operation costs.

And while concerts from Taylor Swift and the Rolling Stones re-energized the city, when it comes to New Year’s Eve, the “no fun city” moniker remains.

If you are looking for fireworks, there are shows at both Grouse and Cypress mountains, but both will be lighting up the sky well before midnight.

The MacMillan Space Centre and the Vancouver Aquarium are also open for you to say goodbye to 2024 and hello to 2025.

There are big bashes at local hotels and restaurants from one end of the region to another. Most, however, are sold out.

The Vancouver Police Department tells 1130 NewsRadio that New Year’s Eve is always one of its busier nights of the year, similar to St. Patrick’s Day or Halloween.

“Although there are no major public events in Vancouver, we always have large numbers of people coming to the city to celebrate,” the VPD said.

“We are deploying more than 100 extra officers to places like the Granville Entertainment District, Gastown, Yaletown, and other parts of the city where crowds tend to gather. Those officers will be there to keep people safe and to respond quickly if there’s an emergency. We’ll also have CounterAttack roadblock teams deployed to stop anyone who is driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol.

“We want everyone to have fun and to celebrate responsibly so we can all make it safely to 2025,” the VPD added.

Meanwhile, in Surrey, police in that city say that they will also have an “additional complement” of officers working even though there are no sanctioned events either.

“As always on New Year’s Eve, a focus of police will be on impaired driving. We encourage everyone, regardless of whether you’re celebrating in Surrey, with friends or family, or going to a private function, to be safe and if you’re consuming liquor or drugs, please ensure you arrange for a designated driver, use transit, a ride-sharing service, or a taxi,” Surrey Police Service Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton shared.

With files from Monika Gul and Shravan Raghavan.