24 things to bring joy in 2024
From festivals to film drops, from fashion moments to sports, could this be the year the roaring twenties truly arrives?
From festivals to film drops, from fashion moments to sports, could this be the year the roaring twenties truly arrives?
Another year has come and gone, 2023, see ya! Whether it was great or not, a nice thing about time is we can keep the memories we want to keep and let that passing of days and weeks and months push the bad further and further out of our thoughts. Ahh.
And now we can look ahead to a new year, 2024! What will it bring! Truly, we never know on a personal level, and that’s exciting. But societally, there’s a whole bunch of events and occasions to look forward to, from shows to binge to a total eclipse! Here’s 24 of the most joyful.
The Oscars actually looks good and close this year
Look, it isn’t just us who think that in recent years the Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, nominations have been an easy call, or just a bit awful in standard. This year, thanks to 2023 being a good year for film, things are a little tighter. Take the Best Picture category, where Oppenheimer, Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon, Past Lives, The Color Purple, and many more all go up against each other. Entertaining! Debate it with your mates, watch socials have a meltdown, celebrate good work, with popcorn at the ready!
The UEFA EURO 2024
It’s sort of hard to remember a year that didn’t have a major football tournament these days, but the men’s Euros last happened in 2021 and is back this year, in Germany. Will the England men’s team (who have to be one of the favourites other than World Cup finalists France) bring it home? You know, like the women’s team did…
Paris 2024 Summer Olympics
More sport, all the sport! Basically all the sports, except the winter ones anyway, they’re in 2026. The Olympics is a great way to spend a hefty stretch of the summer working with the fan blowing in your face and the ambient sounds of ridiculously talented competition and athleticism in the background. New additions include break dancing (breaking). We all know the best sport to watch, by a mile, is Water Polo, though.
Primavera Barcelona
The festival everyone leaves the UK to go to (and to be fair, who can blame them? The line up is great, and Barcelona is just a wonderful wonderful city to mooch about in the day). This year’s line up is pretty ridiculous, including the likes of Pulp, Vampire Weekend, Lana Del Rey, Arca, SZA, and FKA Twigs. It also said gay rights: Kim Petras, Troye Sivan, Omar Apollo, (did we mention Lana yet), and Charli XCX are all playing.
Mean Girls (2024)
Not that one, a new one. Directed by Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez Jr. while starring Angourie Rice, Reneé Rapp, Auliʻi Cravalho, and Christopher Briney, this Mean Girls is based on the Broadway musical stage adaptation of the film we all know and love. Who is hyped!
Challengers
Among the most anticipated movies of 2024, this follows three people in a tennis tournament and love triangle of sorts (Zendaya’s character is married to one and used to be in a relationship with the other). This promises to be scandalous and to show tennis, rightly, among the most alluring of sports.
Pitchfork Festival
Another iconic series of festivals dotted everywhere (London, Paris, Chicago) these festivals from the team behind the geeky music publication that gave Ethel Cain’s Preacher’s Daughter a 6.4/10, are always full of well thought-out artists. The perfect mix of people you’ve been desperate to see and more that you didn’t know you were desperate to see. Pick a city, enjoy the noise!
Glastonbury
Well it happens most years but it’s always a highlight. Tickets are pretty much sorted, sure, but for those who secured the (camping) bag, you can really begin counting down the days from here (from January 1 it is 177 days until the Wednesday of Glasto).
Politics… maybe!
There’s a lot of elections likely to happen this year, and many are definitely happening. Seven of the ten most populous countries will have general elections, and all of the following do: the US, India, South Sudan, Russia, Iran, and the most stressed Taiwan, Ukraine, and possibly the UK. A lot of change is about to come!
A total solar eclipse
Well, if you’re in central Mexico, the contiguous (that’s the main bit of) the USA, or parts of Canada on April 8, you can experience a total solar eclipse. A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun. The sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk, according to NASA. The next solar eclipse in the UK will be in 2090.
The Universal Hip Hop Museum opens in New York
After years of work and development, the museum dedicated to hip hop is opening in the Bronx. Should you find yourself in NYC at all next year, the museum will be high up the list of new attractions. Arguably, there’s nowhere better to experience the 51 years of pivotal music and political history. It’s 22 stories tall, so there’s lots to see.
It starts on a Monday
January 1 2024 is a Monday. Just nice and satisfying, something to look forward to soon. Nothing more to add.
Two big museums are reopening in Lisbon
The Portuguese capital has a packed programme of concerts and music festivals in 2024, but it's the reopening of two major museums that Lisboners are most looking forward to. In the first half of the year, the Gulbenkian Modern Art Centre (aka the CAM) – home to the most renowned collection of modern and contemporary art in Portugal – will open the doors of its gorgeous new building to the public once again. Meanwhile, the MUDE (Lisbon’s Design and Fashion Museum) is promised to open for the second quarter of the new year, after being closed since 2016.
New seasons of shows you like
Stranger Things, You, Bridgerton, Squid Game, Wednesday, and many many more. Happy binge watching!
An extra day
It’s a leap year, so we get an extra day. What will you do with your extra day? It’s on a Thursday. More than that, perhaps you are or know someone who was born on this day! Which means it’s the first birthday to celebrate in four years, happy day to all leap-people!
Another summer
The sun should come back unless something truly terrible happens. Lots of nice long evenings and warmth and touching grass (and wearing SPF), for those of you feeling SAD rn, don’t worry, the most wonderful time of the year (summer) always comes back around too.
A chance to do the things you didn’t do last year
Don’t look back in anger, or frustration, or what ifs. The time has passed. But hey, this year, when things come back around, you can choose to do something different.
A chance to not do the things you did last year
Regrets, had a few? Who doesn’t. This time at least, when the new year and its scenarios and summers and occasions come around, you can perhaps go with a bit of hind-sight and choose to not do the things that left you spending days with a knotty rumble in the stomach.
Resolutions
On the whole ‘do things differently’ wave length, if you’re the type of person to plan a couple resolutions and stick to them, then that’s a good source of joy. Look at what this did for you in 2023! Now there’s another 12 months ready for self-improving in whatever ways you feel you should!
Usher's new record
Just in time for Valentine’s Day the R&B legend and co-owner of a roller-rink in West London, Usher is back with a new album. Coming Home will be his ninth record, his first since 2016, and twenty years after the seminal record Confessions.
Dua Lipa’s new album
Apparently releasing this year at some point is the follow up to Future Nostalgia which took Dua Lipa from known to impossible to not know. Will it be good? We'll find out in 2024!
Being a year wiser (in theory)
For better or worse, we learned things in 2023 and we will in 2024. Embracing the past, using it to inform our future, smart smart stuff. Also you know, a year’s more “facts” from TikToks to tell your mates about. Yay to wisdom.
Polo Shirts
Apparently, they’re back, fashion wise, and not just for Wimbledon. Miu Miu said so, and Challengers is only going to exacerbate that.
Eurovision IN SWEDEN
Basically, if they hadn’t already found a sort of general lap of glory dominance with Abba Voyage and the Mama Mia thing at the O2, then the fact that Eurovision will be held in Malmö, Sweden this year should confirm that Abba is the only band of all time. Yas (Dancing) Queen.
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