Residents of Temecula will greet 2026 next week with a salute to fruit, lowering a batch of grapes from the city’s clock tower to mark the final moments of the current year — on New York time — and welcome the New Year.
The annual “grape drop” celebration will begin at 6 p.m. on Dec. 31 in Town Square Park, which will undergo a temporary conversion to a Times Square-themed venue for celebrations on the last night of 2025.
Like last year, this one will feature only one grape drop, coinciding with the traditional extravaganza in New York City. In prior years, there were up to three drops, joining festivities on the East Coast, in the Midwest and finally West Coast. Toward the end of the 2010s, the drops were narrowed to two, celebrating the Times Square ball drop, then the arrival of midnight in California. Last year, city officials determined heralding the New Year’s arrival once during the big night was enough.
“Celebrate the beginning of 2026 with live music, food vendors and free kids’ activities,” according to a municipal statement. “This family-friendly event features an East Coast countdown at 9 p.m.”
A large cluster of illuminated grapes, measuring 12-by-7 feet, will be gradually reeled down 65 feet from the third story of the Civic Center clock tower, marking the seconds before midnight East Coast time. According to the Temecula Community Services Department, a special nighttime drone show will accompany the traditional drop.
The countdown celebration will be open to the public and will feature live music by Know Illusion and Lifetime Rocker.
City officials are expected to stop by, and public safety personnel will be on hand. The party is slated to wrap around 10 p.m. on Dec. 31.
All of the grape drop celebrations have been in person except for the 2020-21 event, which was entirely virtual, broadcast via the city’s social media channels, because of the COVID lockdowns.
Temecula Valley is home to dozens of vintners, and grapes are the staple product.