New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles: Where to Go, What to Hear

From EDM nightclubs to wide-open park lawns, New Year’s Eve in Los Angeles is only getting bigger. That’s especially good news for last-minute planners.

As the city’s night life is increasingly influenced by dance-music sounds and shaped by renewed public spaces such as Grand Park, the options for the most party-hearty night of the year are reflecting these shifts. There’s more big-room electronic music, including parties that span the entirety of hip hotels, and even bigger events that show off L.A.’s newfound interest in common spaces.

Sure, there are plenty of intimate and extensive Champagne soirees, but most of the marquee events in town represent an ongoing trend toward bigger, broader and more populist events.

Grand Park’s free New Year’s celebration has become one of L.A.’s most welcoming public parties. Now in its second year, it has grown to three times its original footprint, taking over the whole park and surrounding streets. It features multiple stages with live and DJ sets from Ceci Bastida, Mr Little Jeans, Dorothy and KCRW’s Chris Douridas, but make no mistake, the projection-mapped countdown on City Hall (a fun L.A.-centric update of New York’s ball-drop standby) is the main attraction.