Taipei's concert economy booms as hundreds of thousands flood New Year’s Eve celebrations

An estimated 200,000 people filled Taipei's City Hall Plaza and surrounding streets on New Year's Eve as Taipei welcomed the arrival of 2026 with a tightly managed countdown concert and a high-profile fireworks display from Taipei 101.

Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan, was once again at the center of the island's countdown as New Year's Eve celebrations across Taiwan reached their peak in Taipei City, where the annual countdown event unfolded around City Hall Plaza in the downtown center of Xinyi District.

According to figures released by the Taipei City Government, approximately 200,000 attendees gathered in the area to take part in the festivities, making it one of the largest single-site public events in the capital this year.

The countdown, which has become a fixture of Taipei's civic calendar, featured live performances by both international and local singers and pop stars, culminating at midnight with a 6-minute-long fireworks display launched from Taipei 101, the city's most recognizable landmark.

The global presence of Taipei: A recap

The fireworks display from Taipei 101, lasting several minutes, was designed to be visible across large parts of the city and was broadcast live on television and online platforms.

In his speech at the scene, Taipei City Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said that 2025 was a crucial year for Taipei. Taipei has once again proven its strength to the world by successfully welcoming Nvidia, the global AI leader, to Taipei, symbolizing that Taipei is the strongest heart of global technological development in the future.

Over the years, the fireworks at Taipei 101, once the world's tallest building from 2004 to 2010, have evolved from a simple celebratory display into a carefully curated production combining light, sound, and digital imagery.

Previously, CNN had listed Taipei among the top 10 destinations to spend the New Year's Eve, alongside Sydney, Dubai, London, New York and other major cities in the world.

According to the US media, aside from the launching pad for spectacular fireworks, namely Taipei 101, surrounding areas such as the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Tiger Mountain and Xinyi District in general, are prime spots for the annual New Year's spectacular.

In Xinyi District, a businessman named Hung told TCN that he invited friends from more than 10 countries to downtown Taipei to enjoy a meal together, with wine served, and then afterwards to enjoy the Taipei 101 fireworks on the rooftop.

At the scene, a lady from Seattle USA named Yen told TCN that she has Taiwanese roots and that some of her extended family live in Taiwan. “I come here quite often,” she said.

The rising concert economy in Taipei

This New Year's Eve event featured a diverse range of performances, and according to the Taipei City Government, the highlight was the fact that the legendary K-pop girl group KARA was invited to perform in Taipei before the countdown. KARA even greeted the crowd in Mandarin Chinese.

At the scene, when familiar rhythms played, classic songs such as "Honey," "Mister," and "Step" instantly clicked with the huge crowd of audience, creating a climax in the atmosphere.

According to the Taipei City Government, with the opening of the Taipei Dome, a multi-purpose stadium located in downtown Taipei, concerts have increasingly become a trend.

The government statistics showed that from January to November of 2025, Taipei held more than 440 concerts, attracting more than 2.18 million visitors and generating approximately NT$9.45 billion in tourism revenue, or US$0.3 billion. It is estimated that the amount for the whole year of 2025 would exceed NT$10 billion.

Crowd management and transport measures

Given the scale of the gathering, crowd control and public transport were central to the city's planning. Police, firefighters, medical staff, and volunteers were deployed throughout the Xinyi area, while traffic restrictions were introduced in surrounding districts to ensure pedestrian safety.

Taipei's metro system extended operating hours overnight, operating nonstop for 42 hours over the last day of 2025 and the first day of 2026 in order to accommodate the huge crowd.

According to Taipei Metro, system-wide ridership between 6 a.m. on Dec. 31, 2025, and 6 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2026, exceeded 3.04 million passenger trips, reflecting the scale of movement generated by New Year's Eve events in the capital.

To facilitate crowd dispersal, the metro operator encouraged revelers to walk to less congested stations after the festivities. Passengers entering the system during the designated period were offered free rides for a single journey with no limit on the number of stations traveled, a measure aimed at easing pressure on stations surrounding major event venues.

Nearly 2,900 metro staff members were deployed across the network, tasked with directing passenger flows, maintaining platform safety, and conducting station inspections. Where necessary, stations implemented a three-tier crowd control mechanism, including platform access regulation, fare gate flow management, and entrance and exit restrictions. Additional measures covered escalator control, fare gate assistance, ticket sales, and on-site order maintenance.

On New Year's Eve, Taipei Metro also worked in close coordination with the police, increasing patrol frequency and assigning dedicated personnel to monitor surveillance feeds at high-traffic stations. No major safety incidents were reported.