Eleven party-goers in a Footscray apartment building had a hairy start to 2014 when they were stuck in a lift.

On entering the lift a man in the group quipped "Imagine if the lift breaks down", and, just before midnight, that's exactly what happened, trapping them for more than 90 minutes.

About 25 people had been partying in a fourth floor apartment overlooking the Maribyrnong River late on Tuesday.

Journalist Rachel Buchanan wrote on her blog that at about 11.45pm she was among seven adults and four children who entered the small lift to go down to the ground floor to watch the city fireworks.

After they'd started moving, "there was a loud bang and the lift stopped".