The end of 2024 is just around the corner and we are ready to celebrate the New Year. If you have decided to do so in Florence, you will find a truly interesting cultural offer. The city is illuminated by the Florence Lights Up initiative, which enhances buildings and monuments with projections and videomapping. An event that is repeated every year in the city but never ceases to amaze for the magic it creates. On the night of 31 December 2024, however, there are many open-air events, free of charge, that the city (and also the surrounding area) offers.
One of the squares affected by Florence Lights Up is Piazza della Signoria, where, in addition to the light games on Palazzo Vecchio, various programmes will take place, starting in the afternoon: at 5.15 pm Lorenzo Baglioni, magician Mattia Boschi and ventriloquist Nicola Pesaresi will bring joy and entertainment with a mix of comedy and magic for all children.
Space is given to bel canto from 9 pm with the artists of the Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and a programme that weaves together pieces ranging from the great opera repertoire with Rossini, Donizetti and Puccini to Gershwin and Frank Sinatra. This is followed by Debora Iurato, Giovanni Caccamo and from 11.30 pm on the approach of midnight Mr Rain. The night goes on with BowLand, until around one o'clock on the new year.
Two gospel choirs are expected in Piazza San Giovanni, lit by the big Christmas fir tree: The Pilgrims, contemporary Tuscan gospel, and Lara Johnson & the Black Voices, 6 singers accompanied by a band. They can be heard from 10 pm to 1 am.
Piazza Santissima Annunziata, with its ‘natural’ setting of the Spedale degli Innocenti, has always been the venue for concerts on New Year's Eve. This year the title is Jazz in Luce with artist Nino Buonocore and his quartet together with saxophonist Max Ionata. Behind them spectacular plays of light, from 10.45 pm to after midnight.
Not an empty square will remain Piazza Santa Croce where, after the Christmas Market has ended, we will have the National Symphony Orchestra ‘RadioTV Moldova’ and the Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina for an evening of music ranging from symphonic music to pop rock. Here too, it will start at 10.45 pm and end at around 1 am.
Last but not least, the marchin' bands will animate the streets of the Oltrarno, as they have done for a few years now, and additional the streets around Piazza Santa Maria Novella, such as Via Palazzuolo. Two marchin' bands, both overwhelming, to be followed by dancing, from 10pm to 1am.
And thanks to the T1 tramway, it will also be a joke to get to Scandicci where the Italian songwriter Edoardo Bennato is expected in Piazza della Resistenza from 10pm with a programme of famous songs and a selection of new songs from his latest album ‘Non c'è’.
Happy New Year!
