New Year’s Eve fireworks show in Rotterdam cancelled

The New Year’s Eve fireworks show in Rotterdam, the largest fireworks display in the Netherlands, has been cancelled this year due to a lack of funding.

No National Fireworks at Rotterdam’s Erasmus bridge this year

Every New Year’s Eve, thousands of visitors gather in Rotterdam to watch the National Fireworks at the Erasmus bridge. However, this year the country’s largest fireworks show will not take place, AD reports.

The municipality of Rotterdam announced last year that it would no longer be funding the display due to budget cuts. A group of residents created the National Fireworks Foundation and started a fundraising campaign in an attempt to ensure the fireworks display would still go ahead, but fell short, only raising 28.000 euros of their 800.000 euro goal. 

Unable to secure enough funding, the foundation called off efforts to save the fireworks display on Friday, November 7. "That was our deadline. Otherwise, the organisers wouldn't have had time to order and organise the fireworks," foundation chairman Erik Zevenbergen told AD.

Final year of fireworks before implementation of nationwide ban 

Earlier this year, the Dutch parliament approved the motion for a nationwide fireworks ban. Due to issues surrounding the implementation of new rules, the ban will only apply after New Year’s Eve 2025.

This means that it is the final year that residents will be allowed to purchase and set off their own fireworks. Several cities, including Rotterdam, have already implemented their own fireworks bans or firework-free zones, but it often goes ignored, causing damage to properties and injuring hundreds of people every year. 

Many cities organise their own fireworks displays, like the National Fireworks in Rotterdam, in hopes that this will reduce the nuisance of people setting off their own fireworks.