The Best NYE Moments According To Your Favourite Hosts & Performers

This New Year's Eve on the ABC, Zan Rowe and Charlie Pickering will host the concert and fireworks celebration that will light up the Sydney Opera House boardwalk. With the broadcast beginning at 8:30 pm, ABC is ending 2022 with a three-hour extravaganza featuring an incredible roster of Australian artists. 

The spectacular line-up includes Tones and I, Ball Park Music, Vika & Linda, Dami Im, Morgan Evans and Tasman Keith, who are all set to put on unforgettable performances. 

The fun doesn't stop there: ABC's New Year's Eve festivities will also showcase the upcoming 2023 Sydney WorldPride Festival with an exclusive segment hosted by Jeremy Fernandez with show-stopping performances from Electric Fields, Courtney Act and the NYE Queen herself, Casey Donovan. The live music begins at 9:15 pm.

To celebrate this year's New Year's Eve excitement on the ABC, we caught up with Take 5 host Zan Rowe, Vika & Linda, local rocking favourites Ball Park Music, Dami Im, and Electric Fields' Michael Ross to hear all about the most memorable ways they've rung in the New Year.

Zan Rowe

One of my most memorable New Years' was back in the noughties in my hometown of Melbourne. My bestie and I grabbed our bikes and got the train into the city, primed for a party hop home that’d see us through to the next year. We hit the Ding Dong Lounge for a gig, then rode to a warehouse party on the city fringe, and onwards to a big bash in a park on the balmy eve. I kissed a crush, then zipped off to the next shindig, mapping our way back to the burbs. As the sun rose, we rode our bikes through the quiet streets, singing songs and starting a new year with a golden light and the breeze in our faces; I’ll never forget it. 

Vika & Linda

On New Years' Eve 2013, we weren’t working, so Linda had a party on her rooftop in North Fitzroy. There was a real buzz in the air. It was hot and steamy, and early in the afternoon, we could see thousands of kids getting off the tram coming from all directions with slabs of beer and wine casks galore, and we were thinking, hmmm, what’s going on here? The party of the century was about to go off as half of Melbourne’s youth took over The Edinburgh Gardens. There were no dunnys, no lights and the cops were completely caught off guard. Kids were pissing and kissing everywhere, including in the gardens of the posh houses on Alfred Crescent. It was a riot; it was chaos; it was a party storm!

Ball Park Music

One of our most memorable NYE celebrations was in Tasmania. We had played Falls Festival in Marion Bay, but the day had been so hot, and everyone was so exhausted, so we made our way back to Hobart. We joined up with Matt Corby and his band, and we all drank champagne and sang songs by the water at Constitution Dock. It was a very merry and drunken affair. We cheered and hugged as the new year ticked over and then keeled over laughing as Corby and his band immediately transitioned into singing Happy Birthday for one of their bandmates, who was born January 1st. Just a wholesome, happy time in one of our favourite cities.

Dami Im

Growing up, I spent most of our NYE back in Korea with the family. Traditionally in Korea, people would ring a big ancient bell 33 times at midnight, and that would get broadcast on TV. Our family tradition was staying up and watching this ceremonial event. Even though I was quite tired and bored of keeping awake to watch the same bell ring over and over again, I now realise it was a time of reflection and a special tradition for our family, and I hope that I can pass on something similar for my baby Harry here in Australia.

Michael Ross from Electric Fields

Two stories come to mind... 

I was at a public party on the main street of Byron Bay... My sister was DJing, and I'd had quite a few wines and got lost in the music. When the party was over, I looked down and realised I was dancing on a garden bed and completely flattened it. I made sure I planted some trees to make up for it.   

The other was in Adelaide at the main NYE party in Elder Park. We were playing directly into the countdown with fireworks choreographed to our track. 

When the cue came through our in-ear monitors, it was different. They had triggered the 9 pm cue, not the midnight cue. Worried it was going to stuff up the new year for the 40 thousand people in front of us, I managed to catch the track playing out the front, sang Zaachariaha's part in the microphone, Z picked it up, they switched the fireworks cue, and we landed dead on midnight with our song Happy 2000 & Whatever. I almost died from the stress but finishing the track with the fireworks bursting in time to our song was priceless!   

The NYE 2022 concert will be broadcast across the entire ABC network including ABC TV, local ABC Radio and streamed live on ABC iView and across ABC social channels.