There’ll be the usual fireworks from the London Eye and we’ve already shared our top tips for the best club nights on NYE. With just two weeks to go till the end of the year, here are some alternative ideas for seeing in 2013.
TWELVE HOUR FESTIVAL
Elysian Project is throwing a winter festival in a beautiful north London country park from 6pm to 6am. They promise no mud, four music stages, art, film, theatre, lights, lasers and fireworks. Tickets £40+bf.
MURDER MYSTERY
Dress like a gangster, solve a murder and drink the speakeasy dry at this immersive Mobsters’ Murder Mystery dinner and party somewhere around Vauxhall. Character tickets £68, non-character tickets also available.
PING PONG
Nope, the craze isn’t over yet. Spend the last night of the year around a table tennis table, pausing only to raise your paddles as the bongs go. The event says it will be compered by Mr Wiff Waff himself. We assume this isn’t Boris Johnson but what an unusual surprise if it is. Tickets £40 include free ping pong play all night, canapes and pizza (paddle shaped food).
MARDI GRAS
Party New Orleans style while dressed black tie masquerade ball style at Shaker&Company’s Mardi Gras Party with live music, pizza and free Mardi Gras beads. Tickets £25.
CASINO
The Hippodrome was one of our surprise discoveries of the year – an historic building, open 24/7, with a decent cocktail bar, great service and a super smoking deck. On NYE they’re charging £50 to get into the Heliot lounge for canapes and a glass of fizz, or packages from £45 for a gig with singer Natalie Williams.
VINTAGE
The Hemingways and their Vintage team curate pop-up nightclubs, bars and live music from the 20s to the 90s at the Royal Festival Hall, whose riverside location is dead convenient for the fireworks.
DINNER DANCE
The Disappearing Dining Club takes over Red Gallery in Shoreditch for a festive five course feast, with fizz and cocktails, communal dining style. Get a seat at the full shebang from 7pm to 5am for £95. Tickets also available for canapes and cocktails, £25 and dancing only, £15.
SKATE
Take to the ice in the beautiful setting of Somerset House then watch the fireworks from the Riverside Terrace, champagne in hand. Tickets £55+bf for skaters, £40+bf for spectators.
VARIETY
Extravagant party planners White Mischief put on a helluva show at beautiful Bush Hall, with a line-up boasting comedy, cabaret, aerialistes, magic and more. Dressing up encouraged. Tickets £30-60.
SHAMELESSNESS
Guilty Pleasures and Absolute Power fill the Kentish Town forum with pop and power ballads. Sing along, do the dance moves, play air guitar and be unashamed. Tickets £30.
TOP HATS
The House of Wolf parties like its the end of the world with a sumptuous dinner then dancing into oblivion on Upper Street, Islington. Dress code is fabulous vintage finery. Tickets are £60 for the decadent lot starting at 8pm, £20 for just dancing from 9pm.
HOUSE PARTY
Turning their back on chaps, glamour and blitz parties, Bourne & Hollingsworth are having a house party at theirs, decking out their bar like your auntie’s living room and letting you make your own cocktails. Tickets £40 (or you could just have a house party and yours or your auntie’s).
What will you be up to? Let us know in the comments.
Photo by Massimo Usai via the Londonist Flickrpool.
