Brantford and area residents rocked out to ring in 2025 during the City’s New Year’s Eve celebration, which took place at the Sanderson Centre for the Performing Arts and outside in Harmony Square on Tuesday, December 31, 2024.
Prior to the evening of live entertainment, residents were sure to grab a spot in line for the free photobooth and guests donned a host of props including hats, crowns and sunglasses for one final snap-shot memory of 2024.
Once inside, Stephen Wdowczyk and Dave Carol, as well as David McKee, Harmony Squirrel and several City Councillors welcomed the opening act, Freeloader, to the stage.
The lively performance quickly got people bouncing in their seats and singling along as the band sang hits like Pearl Jam’s “Alive,” Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times Bad Times,” The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” and Rage Against the Machine’s “Bulls on Parade.”
Headliner, Hell N Back (an AC/DC tribute band), then took the stage to keep the party going with hits like “Thunderstruck,” “If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It),” “Hells Bells,” and “Back in Black.”
As a special surprise, the band also brought out Kevin Pett, a bagpiper with the 48th Highlanders of Canada, to join them for “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll).”
With 200-plus people in the crowd wearing red light-up headbands, the horn-shaped headpieces could be seen bobbing up and down throughout the show as guests rocked out until the very end of the set.
With midnight closing in, residents soon began heading over to Harmony Square to ring in 2025. As the countdown reached one and the ball dropped, the sound of noisemakers and fireworks filled the air as thousands of residents celebrated with their loved ones.
Jennifer Middleton, Brantford’s Special Event Supervisor, later said she was thrilled to have pulled off another great New Year’s celebration for the City.
“I’m so happy with how everything turned out,” she said. “The fireworks display was just incredible and the concert was absolutely fantastic. It was so great to see everybody singing along and enjoying themselves; I think the whole back row was up on their feet dancing away, I just loved it.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
