Friendly Reminder That If You Are Coming To Nashville For New Year’s, You Can’t Really See The Fireworks From Broadway

Consider this a PSA from Whiskey Riff that could save you a couple hundred dollars.

It’s hard to believe that we’re only a few weeks away from 2o26. Time is truly flying, and the holiday season only makes this time of the year go by that much faster. Blink of an eye and you knock out Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. All of the hustle and bustle makes you ask where the time goes, you know?

Chances are that you’ve got plans for New Year’s Eve, and those plans might even consist of traveling to Nashville to join in on Nashville’s Big Bash for New Year’s. If that happens to be you, pay very close attention to the rest of this story, and send it to anyone that might also have plans to trek to Music City for the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026.

Here’s the deal. Nashville’s New Year’s Eve celebration is held at Bicentennial Park near the Tennessee State Capitol, a few blocks away from the bars and honky tonks on Broadway. While Broadway is the epicenter for Nashville’s 4th of July festivities, Bicentennial Park (not to be confused with Centennial Park) is where the Music Note drops at the stroke of midnight for New Year’s.

And it’s not like that’s a recent change either. The New Year’s Eve celebration has been held at Bicentennial Park since 2018, and it looks like it’ll stay that way for the foreseeable future. I feel like many people would just assume that the New Year’s Bash is on Broadway… especially when networks like CBS put out graphics like this one:

Yeah, so… that’s not where the fireworks will be.

As I just stated, the entirety of the New Year’s festivities – the musical performances, the Music Note dropping, the fireworks afterwards – that all happens at Bicentennial Park (which is about a mile northwest of the main strip of Broadway). And because of all of the buildings downtown, and the elevation changes, the fireworks that are shot off near Bicentennial can’t be seen from the famous row of honky-tonks.

And if you think that should all be obvious, or it’s silly that I took time to write this story up, may I direct you to what went down last year.

When the calendar turned from 2024 to 2025, a TikTok about this very things went viral. Nashville photographer Haley Hays was at Luke Bryan’s rooftop bar, Luke’s 32 Bridge, counting down to midnight with an excited crowd. But their excitement quickly turned to confusion when they started looking for the fireworks – apparently unaware that they couldn’t see them from Broadway.

Hays says that a group up there with them flew in from Montana to celebrate New Year’s “for nothing” after spending $150 to hang out at Luke’s, only to not be able to see the fireworks.

@haleyhaysphoto The people standing next to us flew in from Montana… for nothing. Parking, food + access to rooftop bar was $150. Screw you Nashville, you pmo #nashville #nashvillefireworks #newyearsfireworks #fireworks #fireworkshow #broadway #nashvillebroadway ♬ original sound – Haley Hays

Undoubtedly a bummer, but very much avoidable with a little bit of research (or a helpful story like this one).

All that to say… if you are coming to Nashville for New Year’s and want to a) see the music note drop and b) witness the beautiful fireworks show that rings in the New Year, plan accordingly. You aren’t going to see the fireworks from Broadway, no matter how the promotional graphics make it look.

Bicentennial Park is where all of the magic happens, and where all of the fireworks will light up the night sky after performances from Lainey Wilson, Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Brooks & Dunn, Megan Moroney, Riley Green, and Zach Top… just to name a few of the artists that will be a part of the big night.The post Friendly Reminder That If You Are Coming To Nashville For New Year’s, You Can’t Really See The Fireworks From Broadway first appeared on Whiskey Riff.