Offbeat

The Craziest New Year’s Eve Bashes

Our NYE motto: Go big, or go home. It's the one night of the year when even the most uptight, Type-A personality lets it all hang out ⎯ and these 9 wild parties are where it's at. Enter at your own risk.

See recent posts by Clara Sedlak

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New York

Break out your black tie best for Queen of the Night New Year’s Eve. This vaudeville dinner theater from the creator of "Sleep No More" is a debutante ball gone seriously dark: think feigned sex acts and burlesque acrobatics. The gala on NYE is likely to be the craziest night of the year ⎯ but what do you expect when ticket prices are $450 a head and alcohol flows until 2:30 a.m.?

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Las Vegas

Two words: Snoop Dogg. At Tao New Year’s Eve 2015, the rapper/actor is hosting an only-in-Vegas NYE party with an open bar, hors d'oeuvres and a champagne toast at the stroke of midnight. Just remember: What happens there, stays there. Snoop's orders.

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Los Angeles

Beverly Hills is more class-act than party central, but there’s something to be said for drinking in a hotel…all you have to do is wander upstairs to pass out? Montage Beverly Hills is combining tickets to its "Midnight in Paris" Gala (five-course dinner, dancing in their tony Marquesa Ballroom) with two nights in one of their Spanish Colonial-meets-Old Hollywood-style rooms. The menu alone (lobster, caviar, beef wellington with black truffles) justifies the price tag.

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New Orleans

America’s party capital is much more reserved on New Year’s Eve (kidding!). You’ll probably see just the right amount of cleavage at “A Gatsby Affair” held at Mag’s 940, in the Marigny district. The popular drag bar will transform into a 1920's speakeasy, complete with cross-dress burlesque. We're not sure F. Scott Fitzgerald would approve, but we do.

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San Francisco

The Palace Hotel was built back in 1875--but after a 2015 top-to-tails renovation, it's feeling like the new kid on the block. Its annual New Year's Eve bash is just as youthful: each ballroom will play a different music genre, from 90's hip hop to Euro Top 40. At midnight, 4,000 balloons will drop in every room ⎯ but the party goes on until the wee hours.

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Paris

Moulin Rouge (the 2001 Baz Luhrmann film starring Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman) was wild, but not half as wild as its namesake Parisian cabaret, where the can-can was invented in the 1830s. On NYE, its eye-popping Feeirie Show ⎯ a fanciful multi-scene production, with 60 dancers decked out in feathered headdresses and not much else ⎯ is set to a special champagne soaked, multi-course feast.

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London

There are underground supper clubs, and then there are British underground supper clubs. The Disappearing Dining Club has held fetes in salvage yards, warehouses and even launderettes, but this NYE, its taking over London's Thames lighthouse. On the agenda: dining on vodka-cured salmon and beef wellington, dancing to Balearic disco, and drinking a tad too much alcohol from the open bar. Tis the season.

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Zurich, Switzerland

The iconic Dolder Grand Hotel & Spa is known for going all out. So we shouldn't be surprised by its over-the-top New Years Eve ball. There's a sumptuous four-course dinner (goose liver with kumquats! scallop and oyster risotto!) and live music and dancing with UK-based The AllStars Collective. Sign us up.

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