Some people like to stay home and keep things low-key and quiet on New Year’s Eve. Fortunately, D.C. has plenty of options for the rest of us who would rather tie one on — or three — and usher in 2015 with a bubbly toast among many of our closest, or at least newest, friends.
If you want to dance in the new year next Wednesday, Dec. 31, there are a number of great options. Town Danceboutique gets the ball rolling downstairs with a countdown of the top music videos of 2014 by VJs BacK2bACk and a drag show hosted by Lena Lett and featuring Ba’naka, Shi-queeta Lee and Epiphany, plus special guest Team Peaches. Once midnight rolls around, both floors will be stocked with glow sticks and confetti cannons, and DJ Nikno closes out the night by pumping the jams upstairs. Cover is $25.
Cobalt welcomes dance/soul singer Debby Holiday for a performance hosted by Miss Cyon Flare from Chicago, plus music all night from DJs MadScience and Kennan Orr on the main dance floor and DJ Sean Morris in the lounge. Regular cover is $20 including a free midnight champagne toast plus $6 Stoli drinks, while an $85 VIP ticket gets you a Veuve Clicquot midnight toast and open bar all night.
At the Ziegfeld’s/Secrets complex, everyone gets their own split of champagne for the midnight toast and there will be cash balloon drops on both floors. Ella Fitzgerald leads her Ladies of Illusion in two shows downstairs with music by VJ Tre, and the Men of Secrets offer dancing delights upstairs, with music by DJ Don T.
The Ladies of LURe & Scandal have joined forces at Phase 1 of Dupont (the space formerly known as Apex) for an inaugural dance party called Scene, with beats by DJ Rosie, eye candy by the DystRucXion Dancers and a performance by the DC Kings drag troupe, plus a midnight champagne toast with party favors and other fun treats. Cover is $15. Meanwhile the original Phase 1 in Capitol Hill is going for gold by offering a free bottle of champagne to those dressed in “the sexiest in gold NYE apparel.” The cover of $10 gets you a champagne split, noisemakers and party favors, and all night you can chug $3 PBR Pounders.
Green Lantern offers a special edition of the monthly Bears Can Dance party presented by 495 Bears, with free champagne, party favors for $5 after 10 p.m. — and with coffee and donuts at 1 a.m. Kamille Leal hosts a party and balloon drop at Mova with music by DJs Honey, adotnet and Jai Syncere, all for $15 in advance with complimentary champagne and $5 Mova punch drinks.
Across the river at Arlington’s Freddie’s Beach Bar, Steven Andrade performs as Cher on a night featuring music spun by DJ Nat, special New Year’s Eve cocktails as well as an hors d’oeuvre buffet, champagne toast and favors, all for $35. (And of course the venue known for its brunches offers a special New Year’s Day Brunch for only $19.99, minus $5 with NYE ticket stub.)
Meanwhile, DC9 throws a party called “NYE Chocolate Factory,” offering one hundred $2 chocolate bars in a contest granting one winner a ticket to every show at the venue in 2015 with everyone else getting a ticket to one show of their choice. DJs Steve Lemmerman and Bill Spieler spin for the party also featuring appearances by Oompa Loompas and a 4-hour premium open bar starting at 10 p.m. — plus complimentary champagne at midnight, of course. Cover is $60, or $70 after Dec. 28.
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For free options, head down the block to Nellie’s Sports Bar, where DJs Lemz and Vodkatrina tag-team a party with $15 buckets of beer, $3 Nellie beer and $3 house vodka until 10 p.m., and free champagne at midnight. Or you could head several blocks southwest to Number Nine for complimentary champagne, noisemakers and party favors plus tunes by DJ Chord, or another few blocks further west for JR.’s Bar & Grill, where they will feature a champagne toast and their traditional balloon drop at midnight, featuring $500 in cash and prizes.
For something more cultural, you can’t do much better than the Kennedy Center‘s Grand Foyer Party starting at 10:30 p.m. and featuring music by the 13-piece D.C. swing ensemble Craig Gildner Big Band and the 11-piece New York group the Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra. The party is free for anyone with a ticket stub from a show on site beforehand, whether Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat or Shear Madness, the National Symphony Orchestra with the multicultural Latin rock band Ozomatli, or saxophonist Branford Marsalis and his jazz quartet.
The fall looks primed to be a strong season of concerts by -- and appealing to -- the LGBTQ community. Among the highlights in the category of the well-known, consider Andy Bell (Lincoln), Jane Lynch (Strathmore), Renee Rapp (Merriweather), DOECHII (Anthem), and of course All Things Go (Merriweather). In the category of merely appealing, not gay per se, consider The Queens (Capital One Arena), Deborah Cox (Bethesda Theater), and Judith Hill (The Hamilton).
That barely scratches the surface. There's a lot of new -- or perhaps new to you -- queer artists out there, just waiting for you get into them including Katie Pruitt (Union Station, Rams Head), Rio Romeo (Songbyrd), Aaron Lee Tasjan (Jammin Java), Dixon Dallas (Union Stage).
'Tis a season for celebrating significant milestones in dance, including an amazing honor for one of the most revered names ever to be associated with the art form. The Martha Graham Dance Company, appearing in 2026 at the Kennedy Center, will be marking its 100th year sharing founder Graham's singular vision of movement.
The company's major anniversary, along with many others over the 2025-26 season, offers sweet reassurance that dance is forever and shall remain. Meanwhile, a full menu of new works on tap represents what keeps dance moving forward.
Audiences can relish revisiting beloved perennials, like some of the most exciting Nutcrackers you'll find anywhere, and catch up with companies who've been doing this for decades -- from Mark Morris Dance Group and Pilobolus, visiting twice this season, to the Washington Ballet.
Little by little, year after year, from one season to the next, there have been some subtle yet certain shifts in programming among local classical music organizations -- in both good and not-so-good ways, depending on whether you like, say, holiday sing-alongs come Christmastime. If you do, well, good for you, but boo hoo for the rest of us, because that's definitely on the uptick this season, as in previous years. Similarly, if Halloween is more your jam, you're also in luck, because there's also been a slight increase in the number of eerily inspired, scary-themed shows.
There's also more diversity all around, and in multiple senses of the term -- from slightly more female composers with works being performed around town, to more genre- and boundary-pushing works and programs overall, to seemingly more out, LGBTQ-identified people in this particular genre.
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