First Night (TV Series)
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First Night is a North American artistic and cultural celebration on
New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...
, taking place from afternoon until midnight. Some cities have all their events during the celebration outside, but some cities have events that are hosted indoors by organizations in the city, especially clustered in the local historic downtown which are easily
walkable In urban planning, walkability is the accessibility of amenities within a reasonable walking distance. It is based on the idea that urban spaces should be more than just transport corridors designed for maximum vehicle throughput. Instead, it s ...
to each other, such as churches and theaters. The celebration is
family-friendly A family-friendly product or service is one that is considered to be suitable for all members of an average family. Family-friendly restaurants are ones that provide service to families that have young children. Frequently, family-friendly produc ...
and
alcohol-free Alcohol-free may refer to: *Non-alcoholic drink, a version of an alcoholic drink made without alcohol * Alcohol-free zone, that prohibit the consumption of alcohol *Teetotalism, abstinence from alcohol *" Alcohol-Free", a song by South Korean girl ...
, serving as an alternative to conventional adult New Year's parties that are abundant with alcohol. Since it happens on New Year's Eve, First Night celebrations are actually held on the last night of the old year. First Night celebrates a community's local culture, often featuring music, dance, comedy, art, fireworks and, in some cities,
ice sculpture Ice sculpture is a form of sculpture that uses ice as the raw material. Sculptures from ice can be abstract or realistic and can be functional or purely decorative. Ice sculptures are generally associated with special or extravagant events becaus ...
s and parades.


Boston

First conceived by Clara Wainwright for the December 31, 1975 celebration in
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
, First Night organized a small group of artists and musicians seeking to perform on stages, both indoor and outdoor. The event also sought to avoid the emphasis on alcohol typical of New Year's Eve parties. Soon other surrounding communities started their own First Night celebrations. By the 1990s, the First Night Boston event was attracting works by over a thousand artists. In 2006, more than a million visitors attended First Night events, including free outdoor ice sculptures on
Boston Common The Boston Common is a public park in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest city park in the United States. Boston Common consists of of land bounded by five major Boston streets: Tremont Street, Park Street, Beacon Street, Charl ...
and in
Copley Square Copley Square is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bounded by Boylston Street, Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue, and Dartmouth Street. The square is named for painter John Singleton Copley. Prior to 1883 it was known as Art Squ ...
, and waterfront fireworks.Ford, Rosemary (2006-12-28)
Carving out First Night Boston; Local ice sculptor lends frozen art to annual celebration
. '' The Eagle Tribune''. Retrieved on 2009-04-06.
Until 2015, live coverage of the final part of Boston's First Night, including the countdown to midnight and fireworks over
Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, located adjacent to Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the Northeastern United States. History 17th century Since its dis ...
that begin at the stroke of midnight, was broadcast by
WBZ-TV WBZ-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, serving as the market's CBS outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent WSBK-TV (channel 38). Bo ...
.
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
, the station's parent company, was an official sponsor. In 2013, the non-profit First Night Boston organization closed for financial reasons, though
Mayor Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three mont ...
of Boston (in office for only another year) pledged to find private or public funding the January 2014 celebration. On November 11, 2013, Mayor Menino announced he had acquired the necessary funding and that the 2013 First Night would be “a bigger, brighter display than ever before.” The city of Boston took over the First Night festivities in 2015 and hired an
event planning Event management is the application of project management to the creation and development of small and/or large-scale personal or corporate events such as festivals, conferences, ceremonies, weddings, formal parties, concerts, or conventions. ...
firm to manage the smaller and scaled back event. In 2016, television coverage of the festivities was transferred to
NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...
-owned properties including
NECN New England Cable News (NECN) is a regional 24-hour cable news television network owned and operated by NBCUniversal (as part of the NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations division, both ultimately owned by Comcast) serving the New England reg ...
,
Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...
owned station
WNEU WNEU (channel 60) is a television station licensed to Merrimack, New Hampshire, United States, serving as the Boston-area outlet for the Spanish-language network Telemundo. It is owned and operated by NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group along ...
and newly acquired
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
owned station WBTS-LD; the latter used the event to help launch the station's NBC affiliation, which took effect on January 1, 2017. There was no celebration in 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.


Other cities

By 1999, First Night celebrations were being held in more than 200 cities. In 2000, more than 260 cities had such a celebration. However, in 2001, 20 cities dropped out of the First Night celebrations due to the effects of the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
and/or money difficulties. During the
Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.
, which began in late 2007, many First Night celebrations faced financial difficulty, being scaled back or canceled. There were about 45 cities with First Night celebrations happening on New Year's Eve 2013/2014. As a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, starting on New Year's Eve 2020, First Night events were scaled back or cancelled in many cities and several places enforced measures such as wearing masks and
social distancing In public health, social distancing, also called physical distancing, (NB. Regula Venske is president of the PEN Centre Germany.) is a set of non-pharmaceutical interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of a contagious dise ...
.


National organization

First Night USA is the national offshoot of the original Boston organization. It works with the numerous First Night licensed events throughout the United States. Other celebrations on New Year's Eve, not labeled "First Night", have also sprung up. For example, in 2003, First Night Providence announced they planned to cancel future celebrations, which had been going on for 19 years. A group of local artists created Bright Night Providence, an artist-run New Year's Eve celebration based on the idea and spirit of First Night.


References


External links


First Night USA
{{New Year New Year celebrations Recurring events established in 1975