After a two-year hiatus, Germany's biggest New Year street party is set to return to Berlin in 2022.
The iconic street party between the Brandenburg Gate and the Victory Column will return to the Strasse des 17. Juni this Silvester after a two-year closure due to coronavirus. Organisers announced on Friday that the event will host a range of concerts and has adopted the English-language slogan “Celebrate at the Gate”.
So far, organisers have not mentioned any restrictions, whether they be related to the on-going coronavirus pandemic or concerns over saving energy amid Germany's uncertainties about the coming winter. On the website it was announced that relevant details of the event’s limitations will follow shortly.
The last full-scale Brandenburg Gate New Year celebration happened in 2019. In 2021 celebrations were limited to a television screening of a concert with performances by Bonnie Tyler and German Schlagermusik singer Marianne Rosenberg, but there was no live audience. Despite a ban on gatherings, thousands of revellers gathered before the monument at midnight to ring in the bells.
This year, the famous Brandenburg Gate new year firework spectacular will return. In 2021 fireworks were banned across the country in order to limit visits to hospitals during the pandemic’s highly infectious Omicron wave. Small gatherings were still allowed and in many areas Berliners held private parties with fireworks. As corona cases are currently on the rise, it remains to be seen how the German government will regulate firework sales this coming New Year.