IT’S NEW YEAR’S EVE! So traditionally you have three options.

(a) Go into your nearest urban centre, hand over half your paycheck to enter a superclub that smells of BO, and get drunk while shouting inaudibly at your friends.

(b) Go to a house party and shout inaudibly at your friends while someone vomits in the front porch.

(c) Sit at home on the sofa feeling alternately smug and vaguely inadequate.

This year, you have the additional option of joining thousands of others for The Gathering event on Dublin’s College Green. Which is all well and good, but be aware that you’ll probably get wet.

Here at DailyEdge.ie, we’ve come up with a few alternative suggestions to see in the New Year:

1. Spend it with Brax from Home and Away

Yes, that Brax. The cage-fighting River Boy with the Irish tattoo. Also known as actor Steve Peacocke, who’ll be hitting the Woolshed bar in Cork with everything he’s got tonight for their New Year’s Eve party.

Basically, it’s going to be like spending NYE in Summer Bay. Only, you know, in Cork. It doesn’t say exactly what Brax will be doing, but if the poster is anything to go by it will involve seashells and a parrot:

Pic: Facebook

2. Become a shaman

No, not that kind of Shaman. If you head to Dunderry Park in Navan, Co Meath you can join a New Year’s Eve Shamanic Celebration. It will include firewalking, a Sacred Circle, and something called a Trance Dance.

But again, not that kind of Trance Dance.

“Instead of getting out of your head, it’s about getting into your heart,” says one organiser:

YouTube/ShamanismIreland

3. Go to a warehouse party

Yes, a real live warehouse party. The Mabos Lounge is hosting an NYE event in their warehouse space in Dublin’s Docklands. According to the Facebook page, it’ll feature table tennis, pool, poker, bowling and a “giant GameBoy”. Oh, as well as music from the excellent Toby Kaar. It’ll be like being at a deadly rave in Berlin, only in Dublin.*

*With a bit of luck.

This isn’t actually the warehouse in question. But it is A warehouse. You get the idea. (Flickr/kk+)

4. Go to a masked ball

Have you ever wanted to be like a glamorous debutante from the 1920s? And/or participant in a stately home murder mystery? Of course you have.

And now that dream can become a reality. Freakscene are hosting their ninth annual New Year’s Eve Masquerade Ball at the Roxy in Cork. There’s even a balloon drop at midnight. It’s basically like you’re in the Great Gatsby.

Pic: freakscene.com

5. Dress up as James Bond

Does James Bond ever have a rubbish New Year’s Eve where he loses all his friends at 11.55pm and spends the rest of the evening trying to get a mobile phone signal while three billion people text all their mates? No, of course he doesn’t.

Rouge Nightclub in Swords, Co Dublin is hosting a 007 Skyfall Party, so you too can enjoy the benefits of being an international super-spy. Or just, you know, dress up in a suit and get drunk.

Pic: Facebook

6. Watch Jools’s Annual Hootenanny

OK, this isn’t really an ‘alternative’ idea at all. But we couldn’t resist including it, because here’s the thing: it’s the only way to celebrate New Year’s Eve while also travelling through time.

As the BBC has admitted, the Hootenanny is prerecorded every year. So Jools and the audience and all his celebrity guests do a FAKE countdown and pop bottles of bubbly on what is most likely a rainy Thursday afternoon in November. If you look closely, you can see the deceit in their eyes.

Also, this year’s line-up includes the remaining Dubliners. To the sofa!

Jools Holland, frantically pretending to enjoy himself (Suzan/EMPICS Entertainment)

OK everyone, that’s it for our NYE alternative event roundup. Feel free to use the comments to invite us to any excellent parties. And whatever you’re doing, enjoy it!

More: First official event of The Gathering kicks off with Dublin NYE party>