Why I Love New Year's Eve in Miami
No, really, I'm being serious. Stop rolling your eyes.
Ask people around Miami their plans for New Year’s Eve, and you’d think you asked how they were gearing up for a splendectomy.
“UGH!” they’ll say as their eyes roll halfway to Jupiter. “I HATE New Year’s Eve.”
That’ll be followed by a rant about overpriced dinners, annoying tourists, stifling traffic, and how it’s better to just go to a house party in Kendall.
And nothing, I mean nothing, is ever better in Kendall.
Somehow, it’s become “cool” to complain about New Year’s Eve in Miami, much like it’s become “cool” to complain about clubstaurants and literally anything on Lincoln Road. But sometimes as locals we need to take a step back, and realize the stuff people come here for is actually pretty awesome. And New Year’s Eve is chief among them.
NYE in Miami is one of the biggest parties of the year, in one of the world’s best party cities. And we, as Miamians, have the chance to experience it without jumping on a plane, springing for a hotel, or having to layer on enough sunscreen to survive an explosion of the sun.
And yet you’ll still hear cries of “Amateur Hour” from people whose idea of a Sunday is shuffling around the patio at Club Space.
NYE in Miami is one of the biggest parties of the year, in one of the world’s best party cities.
To me, the amateurism is exactly why New Year’s is great. It’s the odd night of the year when usually straight-laced people let loose a little, when your brother who never drinks has to be carried out of the club, and your friends with little kids make out on a dance floor like they just met. It’s like Halloween, without having to do the walk of shame dressed like Cookie Monster.
In Miami, where people bring kindergartners to an 11 pm dinner like it’s lunch at Chuck-e-Cheese, we forget that for most people staying out past midnight is the big night of the year. And looking down on that is kinda like making fun of the kid who saved up his allowance to buy a pair of knockoff Jordans.
Look, nobody likes spending $325 a person on dinner, even if the chef did win Season 2 of Top Chef: Fresno. But for some people, having dinner at a fancy Miami restaurant and dropping money like an NBA lottery pick feels really cool. And if you think you’re better than them because you’re ringing in 2026 from a MiMo living room, listening to a post-punk synth band you saw at ZeyZey, and eating take-out from a Little Haiti hole-in-the-wall, well, switch out the neighborhoods and you could do that anywhere.
New Year’s is the night when your brother who never drinks has to be carried out of the club, and your friends with little kids make out on a dance floor like they just met
New Years is, in its essence, a celebration, and in a city where we take to the streets banging pots and pans to celebrate an exhibition soccer game, we could be a little more excited. So maybe rather than rolling your eyes at New Year’s Eve, you can be grateful you live in a city with so many great ways to celebrate. None of which involve going to Kendall.