The London Parade (formerly the London's New Year's Day Parade or LNYDP) is an annual parade through the streets of the

West End of London The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, Central London, England, in the London Borough of Camden, London Boroughs of Camden and the City of Westminster. It is west of the City of London an ...

on 1 January. The parade first took place in 1987, as the Lord Mayor of Westminster's Big Parade. The parade was renamed in 1994 and 2025. For the year 2000 only, it was called the Millennium Parade. The parade went virtual in 2021 but returned live for 2022, albeit scaled-down, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. 500,000 spectators attended the 2023 parade.

Organisation

In 2008, the London parade was reported as being the biggest

New Year's Day In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, such as the Gregorian and Julian calendars, begin the year regularly at or near the December solstice, northern winter ...

street event of its kind. It attracts around a million live spectators and US television network PBS (more than 250 stations) cover the entire event live, reaching millions of viewers world-wide. There is ticket-only grandstand seating at various points along the route. Destination Events are the organisers of parade with Joe Bone serving as the parade's Executive Director

Parade route

The parade route is two miles (3.2 km) long. Before 2010, it began at Parliament Square in

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

, continuing along Parliament Street and

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It ...

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster in Central London. It was established in the early-19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. Its name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, the Royal Navy, ...

. It then continued along

Cockspur Street Cockspur Street is a short street in the City of Westminster, London, within which a very short part of Trafalgar Square links Charing Cross to Pall Mall/Pall Mall East at the point where that road changes name, opposite the traffic exit from ...

and

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George IV of the United Kingdom, George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash (architect), J ...

. The final section was along

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, England, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road (England), A4 road that connects central London to ...

and the parade ended at

Green Park The Green Park, one of the Royal Parks of London, is in the City of Westminster, Central London. Green Park is to the north of the gardens and semi-circular forecourt of Buckingham Palace, across Constitution Hill road. The park is in the m ...

. In 2010, the parade route was reversed to "appease US television broadcasters" and to "give the American audience the best views of the capital's landmarks, such as the

Elizabeth Tower Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, and, Pars pro toto, by extension, for the clock tower itself, which stands at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England. Originally named the Cl ...

of the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is located in London, England. It is commonly called the Houses of Parliament after the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two legislative ch ...

(The Houses of Parliament, also known as Big Ben) and Trafalgar Square". The revised route started at the Ritz Hotel, along Piccadilly to

Piccadilly Circus Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End of London, West End in the City of Westminster. It was built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly. In this context, a ''List of road junctions in the Unite ...

, down

, then along Pall Mall to

, then along

to Parliament Square.

Participants

The parade is used to raise funds for charities in London and representatives from each of the 32

London borough The London boroughs are the current 32 districts of England, local authority districts that together with the City of London make up the administrative area of Greater London, England; each is governed by a London borough council. The present ...

s are encouraged to take part as a "borough entry", judged as part of the event. The parade has raised “the best part of £2 million” for London charities since its inception. The competition did not take place in 2021 or 2022 due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

Marching bands

The event broadcast is popular in the United States, receiving an estimated 100 million viewers, and each parade features

marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who play while marching. Historically they were used in armed forces and many marching bands remain military bands. Others are still associated with military units or emulate a military sty ...

s from multiple US universities. The Pride of New Mexico Marching Band from

New Mexico State University New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution of higher education, and was the original land-g ...

was the first collegiate marching band to participate, taking part in the first Lord Mayor of Westminster's Big Parade in 1987.

Scouts

Over 200

Scouts Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...

from across London, led by the

Enfield District Scout Band Scouting in the region of Greater London is largely represented by The Scout Association of the United Kingdom and some Groups of traditional Scouting including the Baden-Powell Scouts' Association. The Scout Association has defined Greater L ...

, took part in the 2007 parade, heralding the start of the UK's 2007 Centenary of Scouting celebrations. London's

town crier A town crier, also called a bellman, is an officer of a royal court or public authority who makes public pronouncements as required. Duties and functions The town crier was used to make public announcements in the streets. Criers often dre ...

is also part of the parade.

Musical groups

In 2019

Megan McKenna Megan Elizabeth McKenna (born 26 September 1992) is an English television personality and singer. After making appearances on ''Ex on the Beach'' (2015–2016), she received wider attention for appearing on ''Celebrity Big Brother (British TV s ...

sung a duet with US country music performer Kaleb Lee. Alongside Megan McKenna, illusionist Andrew Lee became the first Malaysian to take part in London's New Year's Day Parade. In 2021, the British

K-pop K-pop (; an abbreviation of "Korean popular music") is a form of popular music originating in South Korea. It emerged in the 1990s as a form of youth subculture, with Korean musicians taking influence from Western Electronic dance music, danc ...

girl group Kaachi, gave a virtual performance. Jamie Cullum and Sophie Ellis-Bextor added to the virtual spectacular in 2021, joining KAACHI and other performers. Television and Broadway star Marisha Wallace headlined LNYDP 2022 alongside a roster including ''

The Voice UK ''The Voice UK'' is a British singing reality competition television series. Created by John de Mol and Roel van Velzen, it premiered on BBC One on 24 March 2012. Based on the original Dutch singing competition '' The Voice of Holland'', and ...

'' winner Molly Hocking and DJ Bodalia. The 2023 parade featured headline performances from

Scouting For Girls Scouting for Girls are an English pop rock band. Their name is a play on the title of the 1908 Scouting handbook ''Scouting for Boys''. The band was formed in 2005 by three childhood friends from London, Roy Stride on vocals, piano and guitar, ...

and

Toploader Toploader are an English Rock music, rock band from Eastbourne, East Sussex, formed in 1997, with over two million album sales and several top-20 hits both home and abroad. Their debut album, ''Onka's Big Moka'', sold over one million units a ...

. The 2024 parade featured headline performances from Chesney Hawkes and Boyzlife. Rachael O'Connor performed the LNYDP anthem. PALNYDP25

The 2025 parade was headlined by

Peter Andre Peter Andre (born Peter James Andrea; 27 February 1973) is a British-Australian singer, songwriter, and media personality. Born in England to Cypriot parents and raised in Australia, Andre achieved success in the mid-1990s as a singer, topping ...

, with BBC Radio One's Rickie Haywood-Williams and

Melvin Odoom Melvin Kuuku Odoom (born 30 July 1980) is a British radio DJ and television presenter. Alongside Rickie Haywood-Williams and Charlie Hedges, he presented the Kiss (UK radio station), Kiss FM breakfast show (2009–2018) and since then, on BBC R ...

performing on the DJ Toot Bus.

References

External links

Official website
{{Coord, 51, 30, 21.66, N, 0, 7, 49.45, W, scale:1563_region:GB, display=title 1987 establishments in England Annual events in London Media and communications in the City of Westminster New Year celebrations Parades in London Recurring events established in 1987 Winter in England