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The new year got off to an anticlimactic start for hundreds of people in Birmingham who were tricked into attending a non-existent New Year’s Eve fireworks display. Again.
Crowds of revellers gathered in the city’s Centenary Square, hoping to catch a glimpse of a pyrotechnics display to welcome in 2026.
They were left disappointed, however, after they discovered no display would be taking place and that they had fallen victim to false news spread online.
A similar incident happened last year, when thousands of people gathered in the city centre after claims online promised a spectacular display with food vendors and performances.
One online advertisement this year claimed there would be a dazzling fireworks show where attenders could “expect a lively atmosphere featuring music alongside the brilliant show as the city welcomes the new year”.
West Midlands police had said on Tuesday that there were “no official firework displays or city-organised events happening in Birmingham city centre on New Year’s Eve” and blamed the spread of rumours online every year about “big celebrations in the city”.
“Unfortunately, these false claims often lead to confusion and disappointment,” the force said in a statement.
Despite the warnings, footage shared on social media showed a large group of people gathered in front of the ferris wheel at Centenary Square, a focal point in the city, on Wednesday evening. The video’s caption read: “When you queue for fireworks and the sky stays silent.”
It is not just people in Birmingham who have fallen victim to such hoaxes. Tourists were dismayed last month when they visited Buckingham Palace after an AI-generated image had circulated on social media showing a picturesque scene of a Christmas market. Visitors arrived to find it was fake.
West Midlands police said misinformation incidents such as the one on New Year’s Eve could create “real safety issues in the city”, and that when “large crowds gather for an event that doesn’t exist, it puts pressure on public transport, emergency services, and can lead to congestion in the city centre”.
Elsewhere across the UK, millions of people gathered at events and parties to welcome in 2026. London staged its biggest pyrotechnic display to date, with about 12,000 fireworks set off in front of a crowd of 100,000 people watching on the banks of the Thames.
In Scotland, tens of thousands of revellers attending the Hogmanay street party enjoyed a display that lit up Edinburgh Castle.
