New Year's Eve Beach Ball Drop
Presented by Coca-Cola
Panama City Beach may be best known for fun in the sun, but one of Northwest Florida’s most exciting annual events happens after dark: The New Year’s Eve Beach Ball Drop! Help us ring in 2025, Real. Fun. Beach. style. Named the “Best New Year’s Eve Drop” by USA TODAY 10Best, the celebration promises fun for all ages with live music, fireworks, and exciting new additions that extend beyond Pier Park, offering attendees more space to spread out and enjoy the festivities.
Schedule of Events
| 4:00pm | Gates Open | Aaron Bessant Park & Pier Park Drive |
| 4:30pm | Live Music: Saved by the 90's | Aaron Bessant Park |
| 6:30pm | Headliner: Taylor Shines - The Laser Spectacular | Aaron Bessant Park |
| 7:00pm | DJ Performs | Croc Stage |
| 8:00pm | Kids' Beach Ball Drop & Fireworks | Aaron Bessant Park & Pier Park Drive |
| 8:20pm | Live Music: The Life Atlantic | Celebration Tower Stage |
| 10:00pm | Live Music: Will Thompson Band | Celebration Tower Stage |
| Midnight | Beach Ball Drop & Fireworks | Celebration Tower & Russell-Fields City Pier |
New This Year!
New this year, the Kids FUN Zone at Aaron Bessant Park invites families to kick off the festivities at 4 p.m., with a variety of free activities including slides, obstacle courses, bungee trampolines, friendship bracelet stations, and video games. At the Aaron Bessant Park stage, kids and adults alike can enjoy live performances by Saved by the 90s and Taylor Shines – The Laser Spectacular.
Taylor Shines - The Laser Spectacular
A captivating, high-energy show that has enchanted audiences across the country, Taylor Shines features a mesmerizing combination of Taylor Swift's chart-topping hits with vibrant laser displays. This one-of-a-kind performance takes fans on a dazzling journey through Taylor's iconic music career, creating an unforgettable, immersive experience for Swifties of all ages.
Kids’ Beach Ball Drop
At 8:00pm families with young children or those too excited to wait until midnight can experience the first ball drops of the evening at Aaron Bessant Park and Pier Park Drive, featuring dazzling fireworks and the release of 15,000 beach balls between the two locations.
Beach Ball Drop from Celebration Tower
As the clock ticks closer toward midnight Celebration Tower becomes the epicenter of the festivities. Opened in 2016, Panama City Beach’s tower is ten feet taller than the pole on One Times Square in Manhattan (and much closer to white sand beaches and the region’s best sport fishing, too!). Atop Celebration Tower sits what is surely one of the world’s largest beach balls—nearly ten feet in diameter!—and the key to the most unique New Year’s tradition anywhere along Florida’s coast.
As tens of thousands of revelers join the chorus of the final ten-second countdown, the evening’s second Beach Ball Drop begins. The giant beach ball descends further down Celebration Tower with each tick of the clock until it reaches the bottom, signaling the New Year. It’s also the cue for a second round of fireworks, launched from the end of Russell-Fields Pier, to begin igniting in the sky over Panama City Beach, home of “The World’s Most Beautiful Beaches.” The pier, which reaches out more than a quarter-mile into the Gulf of Mexico presents the perfect night-sky backdrop against which to enjoy the bright lights and sharp cracks of sound that send out the old year and welcome in the new.