Close out 2025 on the shores of Lake Champlain at Waterfront Fest! From 2 pm- 10 pm, Highlight fills Burlington’s iconic Waterfront Park with live music, local food vendors, the return of the Fluffy Bus, fireworks, and the unique NYE tradition of setting Champ aflame. Gather for s’mores, kids’ activities, and family-friendly fun all day long. Enjoy sets from The Barr Brothers, Dwight & Nicole, Dari Bay, Bob Wagner, and more. Things start bumping at 2 pm, with DJs, food trucks, and so much more. Grab a seat around the bonfire, sip a drink, and take in some amazing tunes!
- 2:00-3:00 | NYE Run/Walk to Highlight
- 2:00-3:00 | Fluffy Bus DJ
- 2:00-5:00 | S’mores O’Clock
- 2:30-3:30 | Sonido Mal Maiz
- 3:30-4:00 | Fluffy Bus DJ
- 4:00-5:00 | Dwight + Nicole
- 5:00-5:30 | Fluffy Bus DJ
- 5:30-6:30 | Dari Bay
- 6:30-7:00 | Fluffy Bus DJ
- 7:00-8:00 | Bob Wagner
- 8:00 | Fireworks!
- 8:10 | Cirque de Fuego and Champ Burn
- 8:30-10:00 | The Barr Brothers
2:00-3:00 | NYE Run/Walk to Highlight
Warm up for all the Highlight revelry at RunVermont’s 2025 NYE Run/Walk to Highlight! Get your heart pumping with a fun run (or walk, or stroll, or hop) starting at 2 pm, with a rolling start until 2:15 pm. Join us at the circle by ECHO, right as the music and festivities start up and provide fun jams to fuel your run. There will be a clock running starting at 2:00 pm and cones to mark the turnaround for 1 mi, 5 km, and 5 mi. No bibs or need to check in before the race. RunVermont’s 2025 NYE Run/Walk to Highlight is free, but please register through RunSignup.
2:00-5:00 | S’mores O’ Clock & Local Food & Drink!
Gather round a campfire in Waterfront Park for a sweet treat to close out 2025. Volunteers will help young revelers roast their marshmallows and make their very own Highlight s’mores. Hungry for more? Grab a bite from our lineup of local food trucks, including Loaded Totz, Glory Burger, Maharaja Spice, The Box, MexiRico, Woodbelly Pizza, and Sustainable Kitchen. For the adults, Foam Brewers will be on hand with beer, cocktails, and n/a options. With this great lakeside vibe, the fun will keep rolling all day long with VT Close-up Magic; lawn (more accurately, snow) games like corn hole, connect four, and spikeball; and the chance to create your own peace sign inspired by Chris Cleary’s wooden sculpture.
2:30-3:30 | Sondido Mal Maiz
Sonido Mal Maïz is a Vermont-based band that explores the psychedelic side of Latin music, weaving together modern and traditional rhythms from Central and South America. Poetic lyrics incorporate myths and legends of the ancient oral culture of Central America, and the resulting sound emanates a passion and fire that is ignited in their collective heart. Maiz “Brujo” Vargas founded the group in the epicenter of the Burlington scene in 2015, joining forces with some of Vermont’s most inspired musicians. The product is a convergence of explosive and complex sounds that will make you dance, celebrate, and heal your soul.
4:00-5:00 | Dwight & Nicole
Dwight + Nicole trace their musical roots through the blues, soul, and R&B traditions by exploring the spaces between these genres and connecting them with themes found in dream pop and alternative rock. Dwight Ritscher’s warm, soulful tenor would be the envy of many bands, but it is Nicole Nelson’s four-octave vocal range that wowed a national audience during season three of NBC’s The Voice. “Dwight + Nicole are absolutely the real deal. They are carrying the torch.” – Melissa Etheridge
5:30-6:30 | Dari Bay
Led by Burlington, Vermont-based musician Zachary James, Dari Bay is the result of a twisted home recording project gone horribly right. His eccentric lo-fi sound evolved into more grounded (if still slightly surreal) expressions by the time of Longest Day of the Year, a 2023 album that found Dari Bay’s experimental spirit folding into deceptively neutral, unassuming tunes. The unpredictable twisting of guitar tones, lyrical phrases, and feeling itself puts Dari Bay in a lineage of idiosyncratic songwriters that reaches from Judee Sill and Alex Chilton through to Elliott Smith and Liz Phair, right up to present-day boundary-bending contemporaries. The songs invite everyone in with a friendly smile, but make no promises as to where they’ll take us after that.
7:00-8:00 | Bob Wagner
Bob Wagner is celebrated for his soulful guitar work, evocative songwriting, dynamic live shows, as well as his collaborative spirit, organizing benefit concerts in and around Vermont and serving as band leader for the Hug Your Farmer music series at The Flynn Theater. After years of writing, recording, and touring with notable Vermont musicians such as Kat Wright, Mike Gordon, and Josh Panda, Bob Wagner is finally releasing music of his own, and it’s no shock that the results are a powerful blend of the many styles Vermonters have heard him play as a sideman for years. While Wagner’s song craft may lend itself to more of an indie folk or country sensibility, his live shows are known for featuring a dynamic blend of musicianship and searing guitar that embraces spontaneous composition, turning genres on a dime.
8:00-8:30 | Fireworks, Cirque De Fuego & Champ!
As 2025 winds down, Highlight gathers our community to light up the night sky over the waterfront. A beloved local New Year’s Eve custom, we’ll start 2026 with a bang thanks to a breathtaking display of colorful fireworks over Lake Champlain. Fireworks start at 8 pm, to ensure even revelers with early bedtimes get to enjoy this vibrant Burlington tradition.
But the celebration doesn’t end there … Highlight’s hottest tradition continues! Cirque de Fuego has once again built a wooden sculpture of Lake Champlain’s beloved Lake Monster and will honor our region’s legendary mascot with a fiery offering. Come see Champ in its pre-burn glory prior to the fireworks and stick around for Cirque de Fuego’s exciting fire dancing show!
8:30-10:00 | The Barr Brothers
Making their Highlight debut, The Barr Brothers are set to electrify Waterfront Fest with a performance that will carry us straight into the New Year! International touring indie folk faves, The Barr Brothers, combine the poly-rhythmic drumming of Andrew Barr with the poetic songwriting and guitar of Brad Barr. Equally at home in solemn Arcadian ballads, swampy North African improvs, or classic rock and roll revelry, The Barr Brothers mesmerize with their methodical yet whimsical approach to music making.