Paris, Hong Kong, other major cities canceling or changing New Year’s Eve plans

Multiple major world cities, including Paris, Hong Kong and Belgrade, Serbia, have canceled or altered their New Year’s Eve celebrations over security concerns.

Belgrade Mayor Aleksandar Šapić announced his city would not hold official celebrations on either New Year’s Eve or on Serbian New Year, which is Jan. 13-14. He cited security issues at concerts last year as the cause of the cancellation.

“Most of the people who come to these concerts are children aged 13 to 15, mostly girls. Last year, we had a case where a group of people tried to break through the fence and fight with concertgoers. … We will not organize a reception until we are sure that 500 or 1,000 of them will not try to break into the concert and traumatize the children. I have no intention of doing that, so there will be no New Year’s concert,” Mr. Šapić told reporters, according to Serbian newspaper Politika, as translated from Serbian.

In Paris, the decision to cancel the concerts held along the Champs-Elysées was spurred by the Paris Police Prefecture. Jeanne d’Hauteserre, mayor of the eighth arrondissement, or district, of Paris said the police were concerned about “unpredictable crowd movements” and that they said the Champs-Elysées is not “designed to accommodate this type of demonstration where people are constantly moving around,” according to French newspaper Le Monde as translated from French.

There will still be a fireworks display at the Champs-Elysées, according to Le Monde.

In Hong Kong, officials did not provide an exact reason for canceling fireworks at the city’s Victoria Harbor. Instead, the countdown to 2026 will be held in the city’s Central District, according to the South China Morning Post.

One bustling Tokyo district, Shibuya, also canceled its celebrations, which have not been held since New Year’s Eve 2019.

Shibuya Mayor Ken Hasebe cited public drunkenness and rowdy behavior as the reason to keep the celebrations at the Shibuya railway station on ice, according to Tokyo tourism information site Time Out Tokyo.