New Year's Eve in Times Square, 2026 to 2027: The Day Hour by Hour

The day, hour by hour

1. 4amSeventh Ave closes to cars from W 42nd to W 48th St, along with the side streets between Sixth and Eighth Aves.
2. 10amThe 42nd Street entrances to the Times Square subway station close. The 41st Street ones stay open.
3. 11amSeventh Ave and Broadway close to traffic from W 38th to W 59th St.
4. NoonThe N, R and W skip 49th Street and the 1 skips 50th Street, until about 12:15am.
5. 3pmViewing areas officially open, first come, first served. People are already there.
6. 4pmSixth and Eighth Aves close to cars and pedestrians. To cross them you have to use W 41st, 44th, 47th, 50th, 54th or 57th St.
7. 4:37pmSunset. More than seven hours to go, in the dark.
8. 6pmThe ball is lit and raised to the top of the pole at One Times Square. The webcast starts.
9. 6:20pmCrews start handing out tens of thousands of hats and balloons.
10. 6pm to 11:59pmMusic on stages along Broadway, with one on the plaza between W 45th and W 46th St. This year's schedule isn't out.
11. 11:59pmThe ball starts down: 60 seconds.
12. MidnightMore than a ton of confetti comes down.
13. 12:15amTrains go back to normal, and the crowd all heads for the same stations.

Where you get in

From our door to the access points

• W 49th St at Eighth AveThe closest access point to our doorabout 12 min
• W 45th St at Eighth AveThe southernmost access pointabout 15 min
• W 52nd St at Eighth Aveabout 16 min
• W 56th St at Eighth AveThe northernmost. Viewing up here is along Seventh Aveabout 21 min

From 605 W 48th St, door to door at an easy pace, without waiting at lights. Street closures add time.

You can only come in from Sixth or Eighth Ave, on those four cross streets, and you can't walk north, south or across once you're in. Police fill the zone from W 43rd St northward as people arrive, and close each block when it's full. So where you end up depends on when you came.

The Alliance says the ball is best seen along Broadway from W 43rd to W 50th St and along Seventh Ave up to W 59th St. The sound system is in the Bowtie, where Broadway and Seventh cross, and there are screens through the area, so even far north you'll have a picture. If you're way up, you may be watching a screen more than the ball.

The rules that catch people

• No re-entry. The FAQ says it twice. If you leave to eat, you won't get your spot back. If you have dinner nearby, you won't simply be able to walk out and watch at midnight.
• No restrooms and no vendors. No portable toilets and no licensed food or drink vendors. Eat before you go, and plan the rest around that. The Alliance tells people to drink water and avoid alcohol and caffeine, since both dehydrate you.
• Small bags only, and all of them get searched. Not allowed: backpacks, large bags, umbrellas, folding chairs, blankets, big coolers, alcohol, drones, weapons, or anything else big enough to block a view.
• Don't buy a pass. Viewing is free, and no spaces are sold. The Alliance warns about multi-venue and all-access passes, which police have refused at the checkpoints, and counterfeits sold on the street.
• Layers, seriously. A normal December 31 in Central Park is a low of 30°F and a high of 41°F, and you won't be moving for hours.

For updates that day, the city ran a text service last year: text NEWYEARSEVE to 692692 for alerts on weather and road closures, or NOCHEVIEJA for Spanish. Access questions on the day went to the Alliance's dispatch office at (212) 452-5218.

What's on the pole

The current ball, the Constellation Ball, debuted in November 2025. It's 12.5 feet across, weighs 12,350 pounds, and has 5,280 crystals and LED light pucks, with Waterford crystal. It's the ninth version. The first, in 1907, was iron and wood with 100 light bulbs, 5 feet across and 700 pounds. The city had banned the fireworks the party began with in 1904, so the owner of the New York Times needed something else to mark midnight.

It has dropped every year since, except 1942 and 1943, during the wartime dimout, when people still came and greeted the new year with a minute of silence.

If you'd rather not stand there

Watch the webcast. The Alliance streams the night for free at TimesSquareNYC.org: last year it ran six and a half hours with no commercials. There's also a version with open captions and ASL. You'll be warm, and you'll have a bathroom.

Central Park at midnight. New York Road Runners holds a four-mile run on Thursday, December 31, 2026, with fireworks as it starts at midnight. NYRR has registration. It's a real race with a party feel, and centralpark.com says the fireworks last 20 minutes and the 72nd Street Transverse closes to the public from 7:15pm. NYRR gives each runner a wristband for one guest to watch.

Be near it, not in it. The Alliance says many restaurants in the area stay open, and its advice is to reserve well ahead. Just accept that dinner and a spot on the street are two different nights, and pick one.

Be nowhere near it. Last year's closures stopped at Eighth Ave, so everything west of it, including our block by the river, was outside them.

And us

We're at 605 W 48th St, a mile from the ball, on a roof with a glass ceiling, heat and a live DJ. Don't count on seeing the ball from up here. There's a lot of Midtown in between. What we can't tell you yet is what we're doing that night.

In a normal week we're open: Tuesday to Thursday 5pm to 11pm (last reservation 10pm), Friday 5pm to 3am, Saturday 12pm to 3am and Sunday 12pm to 9:30pm. Closed Mondays. Booking online is for 2 to 8 people, with no deposit. If you're in town for the holidays and want the Christmas side of things, see our calendar.