Nashville Partiers Who Paid Big Money To Spend New Year’s Eve At Rooftop Bars Were Surprised & Upset To Learn That You Can’t See The Fireworks From Broadway

We tried to warn you…

Nashville celebrated the new year with their annual New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash celebration, welcoming an estimated record crowd of over 250,000 to downtown Music City to ring in 2026.

This year, the event was headlined by Jason Aldean, Lainey Wilson and Bailey Zimmerman, and is of course punctuated by a music note drop and fireworks show at midnight. The celebration used to be held on Broadway, but a few years ago was moved to Bicentennial Park near the Tennessee State Capitol, a few blocks away from the bars and honky tonks in downtown Nashville.

But as is the case every year, it seems like some people on Broadway didn’t realize that…

New Year’s Eve is a little different than most nights on Broadway, in that the bars that are generally free of cover charges sell tickets for their parties and charge insane covers. Post Malone’s new bar on Broadway, Posty’s, had tickets for their party starting at $95. Garth Brooks’ Friends In Low Places ranged from $50 to over $350, depending on which package you bought. And to get on the rooftop at Jelly Roll’s before midnight, it would cost you $200…and as it turns out, you can’t even see the fireworks.

Now, there’s nothing about New Year’s Eve on Broadway that’s enjoyable to me. I’ve done it before, and you’re packed shoulder to shoulder, the bars are so crowded you can’t even move, much less get a drink, and I’m convinced it could legally be classified as a form of torture.

But as is always the case, partygoers packed the bars and rooftops on Broadway to ring in the new year, though some of them left disappointed after counting down at midnight.

Several videos were posted to TikTok showing anxious revelers on Broadway rooftops counting down and looking up at the sky, only to be disappointed that they couldn’t see the fireworks.

@julia.tweet I was like where are they?? #nashville #nye #broadway #disapointment #imdumb ♬ END OF 2025 FATE OF OPHELIA X MIDNIGHT CITY – ALTÉGO

@chelleular ummmm fireworks where? @d_andress12 ♬ original sound – jameS

Kinda reminds me of this hilarious video, where a guy had apparently convinced a bunch of people that there would be fireworks on the Brooklyn Bridge at midnight, only for the crowd to be let down by what turned out to be a prank.

@zackgill02 so how did this fool us all?? #nycfireworks #brooklynbridge #newyears2026 #nyc2026 ♬ original sound – zackgill02

And I don’t want to victim blame here, because I know these people spent big money to get onto a rooftop to see the fireworks at midnight. But it’s not exactly a secret that the fireworks are at Bicentennial Park. The city advertises the event quite a bit, especially now that it’s broadcast nationally on CBS. It’s not like they decided at the last minute that they would move the fireworks off of Broadway and ruin everybody’s plans.

The New Year’s Eve celebration has been held at Bicentennial Park since 2018, so this isn’t exactly a new development. Of course I understand if you’re not familiar with Nashville you might not understand that you wouldn’t be able to see the fireworks from Broadway, but a quick look at the map would show you that it’s not exactly a prime viewing spot.

And as if that’s not enough, we even tried to warn you to prevent the same type of mixup that happens every year:

Regardless, I hope everybody on Broadway had fun celebrating the new year despite the lack of fireworks. Personally though, the thought of spending New Year’s Eve down there in that crowd and dropping hundreds of dollars just to wait in line to get in anywhere sounds like my own personal hell. And not even fireworks would be enough to make that any better.

But if you’re already making plans for 2027, maybe just head to Bicentennial Park instead.