🔥🔥🔥 WELCOME THE NEW YEAR IN A BLAZE! 🔥🔥🔥

The Des Moines Burning Boat Festival is BACK!

Join in on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025 from 6–9 p.m. for an unforgettable community celebration as we send our hopes, goals, and past hardships into the flames of a handcrafted, eco-friendly wooden burning boat, built by students from Maritime High School—and ignite 2026 together! 🔥

🛶 Write it. Cast it. Burn it. Begin again.

❤️ Hosted by the Des Moines / Normandy Park Rotary Club in partnership with the City of Des Moines, this family-friendly event raises funds for City Parks & Recreation Youth Scholarships.

Don’t miss the fire. Don’t miss the fun. 🔥 Get your tickets on Zeffy NOW👇🏼

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/2025-des-moines-burning-boat-festival

  • WHEN: Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025: 6–9 p.m.
  • WHERE: 410 S. 222nd Street, in front of the Des Moines Pier (map below)

Guests can look forward to:

  • Fire Pits
  • S’mores and Hot Cocoa
  • Kid Face Painting, Craft, Scavenger Hunt and Cookie Walk
  • Kids Fire Truck 
  • Beer, Wine
  • Food Trucks  – Taco Cortes, Moe Vegan, Red Wagon Kettle Corn & Nothing Bundt Cakes
  • DJ  – Plutonium Media Productions
  • Clan Gordon Bagpipe Band
  • Burning Boat with your handwritten notes set a blaze 🔥🔥🔥

Fund A Family

This New Year’s Eve, you can do more than attend an event — you can give a family a memory they’ll never forget by Fund A Family: A Night to Remember at the Burning Boat Festival ✨🔥

Introducing Fund A Family: A Night to Remember, a simple, meaningful way to help neighbors in our community ring in the new year together.

When you Fund A Family, you’re gifting:

    •    🎟 Event tickets

    •    ☕️ Hot cocoa

    •    🔥 S’mores by the fire

    •    ❤️ A warm, joyful night of connection and celebration

If you would like to FUND A FAMILY or make a scholarship donation the Des Moines Legacy Foundation will match donations up to $5000 total. Please contact Jeff at jtgross938@gmail.com to make your donation or become a sponsor.