The traditional New Year's concert, organized by the Dubrovnik Tourist Board and the City of Dubrovnik as well as the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, was held today at Stradun at midday and attracted hundreds of tourists and locals as ever.

The Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of the award-winning conductor Ivan Josip Skender and with a solo performance by the soprano Nicolina Pinko, performed Christmas classics.

Along with splendid music and dancing guests also enjoyed a glass of champagne to welcome in the New Year as well as an oyster or two, all organised by the Dubrovnik Tourist Board, all in all a great start to 2018.

Dubrovnik came alive to the sounds of New Year last night in a long and wild night in the city.

The main street, Stradun, was absolutely packed from one end to the other with party revellers as the regional pop star, Dino Merlin, entertained the mass crowds.

Check out the atmosphere from last night in this video from Studio Relive.

Although it is the craziest night of the year in Dubrovnik it passed without any major incidents. According to the Dubrovnik emergency services the Dubrovnik region was quiet and relatively peaceful for New Year.

All of the emergency services had a straightforward night, the fire brigade, police and ambulance service all reported that there were no serious incidents in the county.

Whilst the whole city was “under siege” from fireworks and bangers no injuries were reported, and the police also didn’t report problems with drink driving. All in all 2018 arrived peacefully in Dubrovnik.

2018 is here and, apart from nursing a hangover, people are promising to be a better version of themselves in the new year.

The most popular New Year resolutions for 2018 are very similar to previous years, with the most popular being to lose weight. However, the odds are against you in you were planning a long list of resolutions. Statistics show that only one in five people managed to keep their resolutions longer than one week.

Here are the top ten most popular New Year’s resolutions according to a popular poll

1.Lose weight

2. Exercise more

3. Save more money

4. Improve diet

5. Something else

6. Pursue a career ambition

7. Spend more time with family

8. Take up a new hobby

9. Decorate at home

10. Cut down on alcohol

New Year was greeted with tens of thousands of party goers on the Stradun. Fireworks exploded in the still night sky, music echoed around the stone facades and laughter filled the city.

The Mayor of Dubrovnik, Mato Frankovic, wished everyone a happy new year and raised a glass of champagne in celebration.

The main singer for the biggest night in the city was Dino Merlin, and he certainly managed to attract an audience from neighbouring countries. The Stradun was packed from one end to the other and the fun went on long into the early morning hours.

Dubrovnik was among the first cities in Croatia to have a new born baby in 2018. At five minutes past midnight Nada Cebalo gave birth and became one of the first mothers of 2018 in Croatia.

The Prefect of the Dubrovnik – Neretva County, Nikola Dobroslavic, visited the Dubrovnik General Hospital on New Year’s Eve to meet the employees and also congratulated Cebalo.

And Dobroslavic had an extra reason to be pleased as the new mum is the sister of the Deputy Prefect, Josko Cebalo. The County Prefect congratulated her on her birth and wished everyone a happy new year.

As Dubrovnik entered the New Year fireworks exploded over the historic Old City lighting up the night sky.

These amazing photos were taken by Zeljko Tutnjevic from the Srd Mountian overlooking Dubrovnik and give a great “bird’s eye view” of the colourful entertainment. It was certainly a night to remember in Dubrovnik.

Check out the fireworks display from New Year 2018

From all of us at The Dubrovnik Times have a happy New Year.

Let us celebrate this exciting, colourful, grand, magical New Year with a great big smile. Wishing you a year full of happiness and prosperity.