A crowd showed up for a midnight New Year's Eve fireworks show. It never came.

Crowds of people apparently duped by misleading social media posts braved the cold for a New Year’s Eve fireworks show at New York’s Brooklyn Bridge.

The only problem? It was never actually scheduled.

Videos posted on social media and obtained by USA TODAY show crowds bundled up and excitedly counting down the final seconds of 2025 with phone cameras aimed skyward before shouting “Happy New Year.” Seconds later, they lapse into confused silence when the anticipated pyrotechnics fail to appear.

Instagram user Marco Abbiati, who offers New York City Christmas tours, posted a reel saying social media videos posted in recent days had showed imaged of July 4 fireworks at the bridge. According to digital media outlet Daily Dot, the videos were AI-generated.

“They misled thousands of people by promoting them as if they were for New Year’s Eve,” Abbiatti wrote.

Officials for Brooklyn Bridge Park said they were not aware of the spurious posts until after the fact.

“Our understanding is that an inaccurate social media post led a crowd to gather in a specific area of the park expecting fireworks at midnight,” park officials told USA TODAY. “While visitors were disappointed, the crowd remained orderly and dispersed without incident.”

Other videos posted afterward show crowds lined up along the waterfront awaiting the nonexistent display, their stunned murmurs interrupted only by random party horns. “Any second now,” said TikTok user zackgill02 in a video chronicling the fiasco. “Where are they? Did we get pranked?”

Another TikTok user posted a video saying it was the first time they’d gone to see fireworks after living in New York City for eight years. “I parked my car, grabbed my camera and followed thousands of people walking toward the same spot,” said user @dhruvsaha, whose perfect front-row spot would bring no fireworks.

"Just confusion," they posted. "Super duper disappointed.”

New Yorkers were merciless in their comments, pointing out that the lack of police boats or any prior New Year’s Eve events at the site should have been red flags, and questioning why attendees had failed to double-check the information.

“Moral of the story: Social media and AI are powerful tools, but also dangerous when misused,” Abbiatti wrote in his post. “Always be careful about what you trust online and make sure the people sharing information actually know what they’re talking about. Otherwise, a dream trip can quickly turn into a nightmare.”