Sheikh Zayed Festival sets 5 Guinness World Records on New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve 2025 at the Sheikh Zayed Festival featured record-breaking moments, international broadcast coverage, and drew hundreds of thousands of participants and spectators to a night marked by five new Guinness World Records.

The Sheikh Zayed Festival closed the year with a series of record-shattering moments. More than 163,000 people gathered on the festival grounds to welcome 2026, while more than of half a million onlookers watched fireworks burst from nearby public spaces.

Among the evening’s signature feats: the longest uninterrupted fireworks presentation anywhere, clocking in at 62 minutes. The festival pushed further, setting records for the highest totals of waterfall, whistle-sound, thunder, and ring-shaped fireworks discharged within half a minute. The night’s programme also brought the world’s largest drone performance — 6,500 drones operated in synchrony, producing aerial designs in nine formations, each shown for the first time as midnight approached. These elements spotlighted the festival’s focus on technical advancement and its delivery of high-calibre event coordination.

Sustainability stood alongside celebration. Organisers sent 500,000 biodegradable balloons into the sky, each balloon carrying seeds from indigenous trees and plants — a gesture combining festivity and environmental awareness. Traditional Emirati displays — Al-Ayyala, Al-Razfa, and Al-Nadba — ran alongside global folk performances and cultural exhibits. The event provided an array of family activities: a funfair, a theatre for children, interactive stage shows. Visitors experienced a fusion of heritage practices with large-scale technological displays and international influences.