New Year’s Eve 2026: President Sheikh Mohamed shares greetings and hopes for prosperity for all

Parties, fireworks displays and concerts will help the country celebrate on the final night of 2025

Fireworks at Burj Khalifa traditionally help the UAE to kick off a new year, with tens of thousands of people set to celebrate in Dubai tonight. Pawan Singh / The National

President Sheikh Mohamed shared his New Year's greetings on Wednesday, wishing everyone a prosperous 2026.

Sheikh Mohamed and other UAE leaders also shared their greetings with the leaders of countries across the world.

“Best wishes on the occasion of the new year. As we come together in celebration, let us welcome the year ahead with renewed hope and determination in efforts to foster unity, progress, and prosperity for all,” Sheikh Mohamed wrote on X.

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The state news agency Wam also reported that Sheikh Mohamed had sent his greetings to “presidents, kings and princes of countries around the world, wishing them continued health and prosperity for their nations”.

Similar messages were sent by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court, added Wam.

Sheikh Mohammed also spoke of his desire to wish everyone “happiness, success and achievement” in a post on social media.

“We are optimistic for a new year … a year filled with practical achievement, economic superiority, international co-operation and prosperity for our noble people,” he said.

New Year’s Eve celebrations will soon be well under way, with major celebrations planned across the UAE.

The traditional firework displays in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah look set to attract thousands of revellers.

Watch Burj Khalifa New Year's Eve fireworks

Concerts by artists such as John Legend, who is to perform at Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental, and Maroon 5 – scheduled to play at Atlantis The Palm – are also among the celebrations.

Rain is unlikely to dampen spirits as crowds enjoy the party atmosphere outdoors, but it might be advisable to wrap up warm as strong winds are set to bring a chill to the festivities.

Road closures in Dubai

Dubai will close major roads early, extend Metro hours and post thousands of emergency workers across the emirate to help manage what promises to be the its largest New Year's Eve celebrations yet.

The plan involves 9,884 police officers, 1,900 medical staff, 1,754 firefighters and 635 ambulance workers, who will help the public to ring in the new year safely. A fully equipped field hospital, with a paediatric care section, will be in operation in the Burj Khalifa area.

Seven medical sites will be in operation across various locations in co-ordination with Dubai Ambulance Services. Dubai is set to welcome tens of thousands of revellers amid a sustained population boom and the city's growing status as a winter tourism destination.

High demand

The popular McGettigan’s chain of restaurants and bars had sold out all its outdoor seating areas, and reported an increase in presale tickets for the JLT and Madinat Jumeirah venues.

“Across McGettigan’s Group we’re excited for a very strong New Year’s Eve – it’s traditionally one of our busiest and most fun nights,” said Dennis McGettigan, chief executive of the McGettigan Group.

“Our advice is simple: get in early to avoid the traffic pinch-points – and if you’re deciding last-minute, we’ll be taking walk-ins indoors where space allows, so you can still join the buzz for our count down to midnight and beyond.

David Allan, who is Cluster General Manager at Radisson Blu Hotels in Dubai Waterfront, Dubai Canal View and the Radisson Resort, Ras Al Khaimah, said it had been a busy winter season.

“So far, the winter season has been brilliant. November was fantastic and it is always a strong month, but it was even better than we expected.

“There's been really high occupancies right the way through, and Christmas and New Year in particular, we've been essentially full for the whole period, which is great.

“This year we've seen a little bit higher demand from Europeans in our city centre hotels over New Year, and the Russian demand is still exceptionally strong. Our length of stay is up and we've got a lot of people staying right across Christmas and New Year.”

“The Business Bay Hotels just simply by nature of location have been the busiest. There has been a lot of demand from people wanting to be as close to downtown as possible at this time of year so all the rooms were booked up quite early.”

New Year holiday

The UAE flag at Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi. January 1 is a public holiday across the Emirates. UAE Presidential Court

New Year's Day will be a holiday for public and private sector employees in the UAE, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation and the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources (Fahr) announced earlier this month.

Friday, January 2, will also be designated as a remote-work day for federal government employees, except those whose roles require them to be in their workplaces.

Meanwhile, Friday prayers will be held at 12.45pm across the country from January 2, rather than 1.15pm.