New Year’s Eve 2020 events and dining options

Here are our suggestions for free New Year’s events. Typical NYE events and parties are, of course, cancelled in 2020.

However, we found a few virtual New Years Eve events and will continue to add more if we find them.

Virtual New Years Eve events 2020

Listed by start time, early to later.

Seattle Center Campus “luminata” outdoor lighting

Thanksgiving thru February 28. Stop by Seattle Center after dark and delight in the wonderland of light! The annual tradition keeping the Seattle Center campus alive with twinkling lights in the trees and other specialty light features across the grounds, including a special winter light display at Cornish Playhouse.

Free event. More info: Winterfest Holiday Outdoor Campus Lighting (seattlecenter.com)

Virtual Pink Martini Holiday Spectacular

December 31, 2020 at NOON. Fun for the whole family! Enjoy this much-needed holiday cheer right from your living room. Celebrate the season with “Home for the Holidays: A Pink Martini Holiday Spectacular”, and ring in the new year with “Good Riddance 2020!”

Filmed in front of the 35-foot Christmas tree at Pink Martini’s World Headquarters in Portland, OR include fan favorites alongside holiday classics old and new. Featuring lead singer China Forbes, with very special guest appearances by Storm Large, Ari Shapiro, Edna Vazquez, Jimmie Herrod, Sofi von Trapp, and Cantor Ida Rae Cahana.

Tickets: $15. More info: https://www.tacomaartslive.org/events/calendar/eventdetail/1761/-/celebrate-the-new-year-with-pink-martini and https://ourconcerts.live/pink-martini-good-riddance-2020?tacoma

Seattle Space Needle New Year’s Eve Fireworks

December 31, 2020 at 11:30PM. This year’s celebration will burst through your screen with a never-before-seen virtual spectacular!

The virtual show can only be seen on TV or streaming! There are no in-person festivities and no events at Seattle Center on New Year’s Eve.

The Space Needle will usher in 2021 with a sensational and innovative new show broadcast locally on KING 5 and streamed around the world for T-Mobile New Year’s at the Needle. This year’s celebration will feature striking visuals in a wondrous display of digital effects, engineered to bring you bigger thrills than ever before – all safely from the comfort of home.

Free event. Stream online at spaceneedle.com/newyears.

New Year dining

Find a restaurant on OpenTable offering dine-in and takeout option for New Year’s Eve Restaurant Reservations

New Years Eve & New Year’s Day events

The events listed below include free and cheap things to do on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. If there is nothing listed here, we haven’t yet begun to update the calendar for this year. We usually begin updating sometime in the fall as organizers announce upcoming events.