Families in Palmerston North will have to sort out their own New Year's Eve celebrations, with no public family-oriented events planned.

After New Year's in The Square was cancelled because of forecast poor weather, Destination Manawatu events co-ordinator Shelly Deegan said events calender website Eventfinder.co.nz was the best place to find alternatives.

But although the website shows various exhibitions on at Te Manawa and other art galleries during the day, the city looks set to be dead when the clock strikes midnight, with no public events planned.

There had been a bright side to the bad weather forecast though, with plenty of travellers coming through the i-Site in The Square asking for alternatives to their current plans, Mrs Deegan said.

People going to outdoor events such as Rhythm and Vines near Gisborne were starting to rethink their holidays after MetService had forecasted heavy rain across most of the North Island.

''Nationwide people are revising plans and going online [to find alternatives],'' Mrs Deegan said.

''It's not just a Manawatu thing it's all over the country.''

Plenty of readers have made their disappointment at the cancellation of festivities in The Square felt on the Manawatu Standard website.

''Bruno'' said it was a good call to cancel it a few days out.

''Although we all know that weather forecasts are not 100 per cent accurate, it's the best information we have and, from a planning perspective, the organisers would be foolish to ignore it [not to mention possibly voiding any insurance cover as bad weather would not be an unexpected event].''

Bars around town look to have shunned the temptation to put on anything special for the big night.

The Grand bar owner Stephen Bragg said it would put on live music and be open until 3am, just like most Saturday nights.

He said he had not put on any security because he did not expect to need it. It was hard to say if the cancellation of events in The Square would affect business, but the night was usually ''not huge, but not quiet''.

''A lot of people leave town,'' he said.

The Brewer's Apprentice duty manager Kim Ross said the bar was likely to have live music and would probably be open later than the usual closing time, but things would be pretty standard otherwise.

She said the night was usually ''not pumping'', but still pretty good.