VTimes Square New Year Celebration

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The VTimes Square New Year Celebration is an annual New Year's Eve celebration in VTimes Square, New Blockers City. The event started privately at approximately 6:00 a.m. after the first six hours, and it officially opened to the public at around 6:00 p.m. To commemorate the end of the year and the start of the countdown, the ball descended at precisely 11:59:00 p.m., and it stopped at precisely midnight, or 12:00 a.m., to mark the start of a new year. The centerpieces of the celebrations are the ball itself, which is located atop the One VTimes Square building and is widely known to as the "ball drop"—the countdown and the ball itself.

Since 1900 marked the start of the next 100 years, it was a significant event in history, and he was very interested in celebrating its arrival. The Blocker City New Year's Party, as it was originally called, was a big success, bringing sizable crowds and garnering media attention. The celebration was rescheduled for the arrival of 1901, and it was as successful. Toby made the decision to begin the event annually on December 31 after the first two events proved to be successful.

From then on, the event has been conducted annually. In commemoration of the event's name change, the celebration was called the VTimes Square New Year Celebration starting in 1980. Every event had a planning phase that may start as early as June or July, followed by the construction phase in October or November, and the completion of the event during the last week of December. The workmen began building the numerals in the same month as they began working on the countdown design.

Furthermore, the ball had a number of noteworthy design changes. The initial iteration, constructed of wood, stood from 1901 to 1957. The second version, composed of iron and metal, was constructed between 1958 and 1999. The 1990s saw a significant modification to the design. The ball was lowered in both versions by many people using ropes, but in the second model with technology, an automated rope system was used to lower the ball. The ball was recently illuminated from within the building and has had more than 32,000 lights installed since 2000. In 2005, Bright Beginnings assumed responsibility for organizing the event.

Events

Beginning of celebration

Nearly a thousand people, including the mayor of New York City, have seen the ball rise to the top every year since it first appeared in the early hours of December 31. The individuals closest to the ball itself are at the very top. They count down the first 10 seconds and then raise the button to start a burst of fireworks that symbolize the entire country of America. A background music called "The Great Strategy" starts to play when the test countdown (beginning at the 60-second point) starts and the ball starts to ascend to the top. Colorful fireworks are sent out again as the countdown hits zero, and the ball is transformed into an American-style color scheme in an effort to honor America as a whole once again.

The song "God Bless America" was first performed by performer Esteban Delacruz in 1920 and was later retitled "God Bless The U.S.A." somewhere about 1953. The song would be sung in front of the Times Square structure after the pyrotechnics had ended and the ball has reached the highest point. There were occasions when the building itself let off pyrotechnics as the song was playing. The song's traditional performance ceased about 1955, although it was revived in more recent times, starting in 2002 (when it was reintroduced after the September 11 attacks, which had occurred just three months before), and lasting until 2007.

• 1920 — Jenson Burton (as "God Bless America")
• 1921 — Frederick Reynolds
• 1922 — Thomas King
• 1923 — Tom Burton
• 1924 — Tristen Tate
• 1925 — Esteban Delacruz
• 1926 — Cael Vincent
• 1927 — Allan Nolan
• 1928 — Sonny Turner
• 1929 — Archie Elliott
• 1930 — Henry Mitchell
• 1931 — Jonathan Edwards
• 1932 — Tate Olson
• 1933 — Lewis Parrish
• 1934 — Elliot Barnes
• 1935 — Reece Watson
• 1936 — Aaron Doyle
• 1937 — James Brown
• 1938 — Bradley Kennedy
• 1939 — Daniel Anderson
• 1940 — Blaine Freeman
• 1941 — Zachary Sutton
• 1942 — Aidan Gallagher
• 1943 — Peter Fraser
• 1944 — Josiah Kim
• 1945 — Spencer Snow
• 1946 — Sebastian Wright
• 1947 — Charles Phillips
• 1948 — Gilberto Norman
• 1949 — Immanuel Juarez
• 1950 — Jeffery Dawson
• 1951 — Emmett Dominguez
• 1952 — Zak Fletcher
• 1953 — Bentlee Solomon (as "God Bless The U.S.A.")
• 1954 — Armando Solis
• 1955 — Rex Nielsen
• 2002 — Dexter Cunningham (as "God Bless The United States of America")
• 2003 — Caleb Gallagher
• 2004 — Hannah Richards
• 2005 — Finlay Macdonald
• 2006 — Maurice Cunningham
• 2007 — Jayden Richards

By now, even though it was still extremely early in the morning and a lot of people were still asleep, at least 500 additional individuals who were nearby had joined lthe celebration; the police would shortly transport them to their designated location. When the celebration began in the early 1900s, authorities initially forbade anybody from entering if they were carrying tables, chairs, food, or any other item deemed "way too dangerous" for both the event and the individual. But starting in 1991, law enforcement eventually allowed individuals to enter with things, provided that they kept a "eye" on those below to ensure that nothing harmful or hazardous occurred. Additionally, during this time, a number of musicians started rehearsing their performance for when their song is ready to be performed in front of more than 200,000 people. Three hours later, at around 9:00 a.m., the ball formally descends to the bottom once more and remains there until the commencement of the event.

Around noon, the ball rises once again for a brief test, but it only makes it halfway before falling back down. A countdown that lasted 20 seconds and was repeated every hour until the new year began exactly one hour before to the event; however, no fireworks were fired and the 10-countdowns that other nations played as the new year began 30 minutes later.

Start of event and festivities

The clock signal sound effect started playing in the background at precisely 6:00 p.m., marking the start of the 20-countdown countdown to 6 hours remaining. In the last 10 seconds, the building bursts into a tremendous fireworks explosion that shoots high into the structure. By then, confetti is also thrown from the streets below, a custom that dates back to 1999 and continues to this day with the ball drop ceremony. Subsequently, the Great Strategy theme started playing in the background. A 10-countdown with a group of about five individuals counting down the ten seconds aired on the screen. The crowd cheers as fireworks are fired from the top and all of the ball's lights are switched on at the zero point. Subsequently, the ball started to ascend on the poll, as seen on the screen at this time. From 2000 to 2008 and once again in 2024, the ball could be seen straight from the streets below. However, starting in 2009, a new feature to the One Times Square building was added, making it such that the ball could not be seen after it reached the top and passed over the feature. Fireworks are fired many times over the three-minute theme, and when the song comes to a finish, a large display of colorful fireworks is fired into the sky, causing the ball to change color

Numerous unique performances and events happen throughout the celebration throughout the event. A clock is displayed on the screen and a 20-countdown is played in the background every hour, building up to the final countdown. More fireworks are fired into the sky when the screen indicates the number of hours till the end of the year at the conclusion of each countdown. Among the most significant aspects of the event was the performance itself, when performers and singers debuted their songs in front of nearly 200,000 spectators. At the conclusion of each song, pyrotechnics were fired from all directions around the structure.

The most important and awaited part is the actual finale, which occurs when the ball finally touches the bottom and the new year begins. At precisely 11:59:00 p.m., a group of individuals hit a button inside to make the ball fall. On the other hand, a few others outside "launched" the ball down by pressing the ball button. The clock's 60-second countdown animation started. The clock signal was also playing in the background. The noise intensifies as 12:00 a.m. draws near, with fireworks exploding every 15 seconds from both sides. Smaller-scale fireworks are shot into the skies from practically every building at the 20-second mark, and confetti is tossed into the streets below. When the clock hits fifteen minutes to midnight, both sides let off a barrage of fireworks until the clock reaches zero. However, once One Times Square was rebuilt and redesigned, starting in 2023, the number of explosions was significantly reduced. The ball started to become white at 10 seconds in, then black, and it did that ten times in total before hitting the bottom.

At precisely 12:00 a.m., a colossal explosion and a slew of fireworks were let off all around, and a "HAPPY NEW YEAR" sign was shown on the screen. More fireworks are fired from every other building at that precise moment, and as of 2019, fireworks from Two Times Square are fired from the bottom. There's confetti flying all over Times Square as the full song "Auld Lang Syne" plays in the background. After then, the skyscraper itself starts to shoot additional fireworks toward the conclusion of the show, and its theme music, "Theme from New York, New York," starts to play in the background for about four minutes. The songs "America the Beautiful," "What a Wonderful World," and ultimately "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" are played after that, along with a brief display of fireworks. A unique countdown for a corporation would occasionally play in the background; the most recent countdown was in 2024, and it mainly substituted other music for these ones.

Clean-up

The confetti that had been raining down on New Year's Eve was taken away by the masses moments before the celebration ended, and at least 500 people worked to clean it up. Then, the entire Times Square was cordoned off while workers cleaned up the debris. Thousands of confetti fell in Times Square in 2018, a noteworthy event. Reportedly, most of the confetti was cleaned up and in the process of being removed during a six-hour period that ended early on January 1. By the time dawn arrived in 2015, there was supposedly no trace of the stage, with some confetti still soaring through the air. The location of the event was at least five kilometers away from the location of the confetti that fell down.

History

Background and first ball

Owner of the Times Square building, Toby Washington, has previously worked on or at least taken part in numerous New Year's Eve festivities. Designed for New York City, Toby Washington also created architectural designs, one of which was the Times Square structure, which had recently been completed in May 1899. At the time the event was planned, 1900 was seen as a "major milestone" since it would signal the start of a new century and would witness "major changes" over the course of the years. Toby worked for a building design firm during this period. For this reason, Toby Washington was very interested in organizing his own event to usher in the new century. Since no information about the intended event had been made public and the structure was still standing as a typical skyscraper, it is "likely" that planning for the ball drop started in November or December of 1899. Since it was reportedly expensive and impossible to procure any metal or iron at the time tomake the ball itself, Toby hired a staff to work on the ball during that period. Funding for the event was allegedly insufficient because, according to insiders, Toby thought there was a "50/50" chance it wouldn't work out. A fresh story published on December 20, 1899, first reported about the Blocker City fresh Year's Party. The public's reaction to the news was mostly positive at the time. The idea of a "ball drop" was also warmly welcomed, and preparations are on to begin the event the next week, just in time for New Year's Eve.

Beginning early in the design phase in November, the crew took their time creating the numerals and the ball's lights since they were "very important" to them. The ball was finished three days before the event and required about a thousand wooden blocks to be assembled. In early December, construction got underway. Billy Chambers, Owen Atkinson, Alden Fields, and Chris Mcmillan designed the numbers. They collaborated with Toby to create a minimum of 100 sketches and photographs depicting the architecture and the numerals. The "1900" numbers were originally intended to appear in "bold" words, but the designers abandoned this idea, according to many sketches in the collection. Toby said in a report dated January 3, 1900, that the time ball from ancient civilizations, about which he had previously learnt, served as the model for the wooden ball. In just five days, the wooden block "1900" numerals were also built before the ball was finished. Back then, in the days before New Year's Eve festivities, a group of people placed a lot of pressure on the ball and the numbers by performing music as the ball rose and sank. Planning for the removal of portion of the top of the One Times Square skyscraper to add a pole at the top and introduce the ball to be placed at the top of the building started during this period. For the crew, which included Randall Copeland and Isaac Richardson, the pole was, at best, "off-putting" and had been prepared for at least three months. For the time being, though, Toby had been hooked on the notion for "as long as he can remember" and felt it would be intriguing to really place one at the top.

The crew changed the building's feature on the spur of the moment, and on December 26th, they set pyrotechnics at the top of the buildings instead of introducing them at all. It was reported that about 400 pyrotechnics were used. In a recent report that the New York Times published on December 30, Toby anticipated it would be a "hit". It brought attention to the ball and the skyscraper's numerals at the top. When the crew started marketing the event with just ten days to go, it was hailed as "one of the biggest New Year's Eve" in New York City. About December 30, plans for more fireworks were added to the Times Square venue, just in time for the actual "event". The ball testing was allegedly done between December 24 and December 29 with Toby serving as the director. Press accounts claim that the "1900" numerals were lifted using a crane that was placed three days earlier atop the building. As one of the witnesses to the ball's ascension, Adrian Mcconnell was meant to snap a photo, but it hasn't been released to the public.

Beginnings (1899-1957)

The inaugural wooden ball marked the beginning of the celebration; it was positioned atop One Times Square and raised to the top on December 31, 1899. That day's event, called The Blocker City New Year's Party, proved to be a huge success with attendees, drawing over 50,000 people overall, according to reports from newspapers the following day. The event was initially intended to be the only one and to be the last one in the region. However, throughout the course of the following year, as a growing number of people demanded additional events similar to this one, Toby made the decision to construct another one. Planning for the old "1900" numbers started in November, when they were taken out and positioned at an old structure next to the Empire State structure. Since then, the old numerals have vanished. The building of the numbers "1902" then started in early December 1900. The wooden ball was kept, but new, cutting-edge lighting was installed in its place, and testing for the event started a few days before it took place.

The Blocker City New Year's Party: 1900 Edition was the second event that Toby hosted. This time, it attracted far larger crowds than anticipated, with over 100,000 attendees. It was once again deemed a "massive hit" for the New Year's Eve celebrations, and on July 9, 1901, it officially became an annual celebration for "everyone" and featured New York City's true love. When the clock struck midnight in 1908, a display of fireworks went off so high that some flames fell into the audience, injuring at least two persons in total, however none of them were seriously hurt or considered life-threatening. As a result, there were far fewer fireworks during the festival the next year, and they were only set off once during the whole event. Pitch after pitch was made in 1920 to the crew, requesting a performance for each time the ball reached the summit and pyrotechnics were let off. Toby decided on the song "God Bless America" because he wanted to highlight the positive aspects of the country rather than its bad aspects.

Designer Elizabeth Marshall came up with the idea of using confetti and other balloons to make the occasion "more fun" for the attendees in 1924 and showed it to Toby. Additionally, she proposed the notion of creating a clock signal in the center, close to the top. Although the notion of confetti was added for the year's event, the clock signal was not fully implemented, and there was no clock until 1940. Plans called for removing the ball in the 1944 version in favor of additional iron and metal balls and better lighting, but Toby insisted on keeping it there because he liked to. After Toby passed away on May 5, 1945, the celebration was renamed in his honor, and famous broadcaster Christopher Bradley took over as host for the 1946 event. Around 1950, when metal was first added to the structure, the numbers were converted to metal and the "1951" numerals were illuminated with sophisticated lighting.

Second ball and second generation (1958-1996)

While plans were being made for the following event, a brand-new third edition of the number design was shown at a pitching conference in 1958. The design used prominent lettering for the year "1959" and arranged similar numerals near to one another to be seen in front of the ball. Another concept was put up, in which the year "1959" would be placed at the foot of the building and organized using clever lighting to create a starry pattern that would go from top to bottom. Callum Gallagher, who has been in charge of the ball drop since Toby's death, accepted the notion later that month and got to work on the design. A pitch was produced highlighting the ball's special feature, which would allow fireworks to burst one by one until a massive explosion of fireworks could be seen from all around the structure, in order to qualify for the 1960 event. Michael Thompson and Natasha Walker came up with the notion of playing "Auld Lang Syne" on New Year's Eve at midnight every year back in 1963, when the event was still in the early phases of organizing. Their suggestion was approved, and the 1964 event featured it.

One night in 1967, just before midnight, the ball's lighting crashed and stopped revolving due to strong winds and a lot of rain. In addition, the rope's malfunction was noted by the personnel at the summit of the tower. Due to the "Auld Lang Syne" music playing in the background, some claimed to know it was a new year. But the ball could not be fully seen due to thick smoke, and the digits "1968" were obscured for a minimum of a minute subsequent to midnight. In 1978, a pitch conference reviewed ideas to build a screen atop the building that would display commercials and a sixty-second countdown to greet the new century. However, the idea wouldn't be implemented until the end of the 1990s decade. The Times Square New Year's Celebration proved to be highly popular that year after months of deliberation on the part of the organizers. The crew had to make more pyrotechnics when they ran out for the 1982 event. The next year, they used pyrotechnics to adorn nearly every building in the area.

After utilizing the ball for more than 40 years in total, Isaac Ward and the crew decided to totally revamp it for the 1991 event. This included adding brand-new, cutting-edge lighting and entirely changing the numbers. Now that technology was advancing, in 1993, for the New Year's Eve celebration, the ball was tested using a computer, which proved successful, but people apparently continued to place the rope down on it. The ball was now covered with light bulbs rather than the lighting strings that had previously been there. Following the World Trade Center attack in February 1993, security increased dramatically. A more modern rendition of the "1996" numerals was produced in 1995. According to Bradley Gallagher, this makeover was more robust and expansive than the last one.

The third generation and the millennium (1997-2009)

Designer Brandon Harper proposed a new idea for the 1997 edition of the ball drop, which was originally added in the 1970s. The idea involved adding a new screen to the top of Times Square and replacing the old numeral design with new bulb lights for the "1997" numerals that were positioned at the top of the building. Before, there was a screen, but it was small because technology wasn't as "advanced" as it was the year before. Planning started in June 1996 to replace the small screen with a bigger one, and Times Square hired multiple animators to oversee the 60-second countdown animation. In November of the same year, the screen started to function, and the new design for the numerals also got underway. Since the year 2000 was almost here, significant preparations and pitches were made for the countdown to 2000. Charlie Henderson, the owner and leader of the Times Square skyscraper, planned to deploy several countdown screens for the 1999 edition. According to Anders Townsend, among the several proposals for the 2000 event was the introduction of a completely new design for the numerals. As far back as 1998, preparations for the event began two years before it actually took place. The "2000" numerals, which were developed by Harrison Sweeney and James Holland, were originally intended to be the "1950" again. However, they were abandoned since the most recent design was "way more advanced" and didn't seem to be functioning.

Since 1995, several suggestions to completely reconstruct the ball and transform it into a time ball have been made; however, the most of them have been rejected. Plans were underway to redesign the ball as the year 2000 drew near. On January 1, 1999, Kirsten Osborne made a press release announcing that plans were in motion for the event's 2000 edition, but at that time, no further information was available. Jared Zimmerman, Jake Griffiths, Deegan Buchanan, Jackson Barnes, and Matthew Walsh created the new ball. The "2000" numerals were finally constructed between October 1 and October 31, and more than 5,000 color-changing bulb lights were involved in the construction, which began in July throughout the summer. In the lead-up to the tournament, the marketing campaign started in November and ran until the finals day. Sources said that The Super 2-0-0-0 New Year Celebration At Times Square was the intended new "likely" name for the event, but that concept was abandoned in favor of the more memorable original moniker. Held from December 31, 1999 to January 1, 2000, it was the greatest New Year's Eve celebration in the history of New York and drew the biggest attendance since its inception in the early 1900s.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks that had happened months before, the 2002 edition of the event had significant revisions. People were prohibited from bringing objects to the event for the first time since 1991, and the notion of placing them in pens was added. Additionally, musician Jackson Spence proposed that the tradition of singing "God Bless America" be reinstated at the event for the first time since 1955, perhaps in October 2001. A new screen with an animated countdown was installed above One Times Square just for the 2003 event. In December 2005, Bright Beginnings became the first company to assume whole responsibility for the event; they also helped with the preparations for the 2006 version. January 2007 saw the receipt of a proposal from the guy responsible for creating the present ball, Jenson Lloyd, and November of that same year saw an update to the design. One of the company's proposals to create a whole new ball for that edition was this one. In a brand-new segment finished in November 2008, the "2009" digits were positioned at the top of the ball, and the ball itself had to travel halfway to reach the point of the numerals.

Modern era (2010-present)

Reception

Reviews of VTimes Square New Year's Celebration were generally mixed early on in the event's existence; very few critics and people commended it for being "a go-to place" on New Year's Eve. Thomas Howard, a journalist for the New York Times, wrote a story titled "New Year's Eve In Times Square: Is It Fun As People Expected?" on January 2, 1900. Even though it was packed and he had to remain still for hours "in the freezing weather," he said in the newspaper that the event's "ball drop" was its high point. All in all, though, he thought it was "boring," and suggested that people "go very late before the event happened." For example, in 1924, a group of writers led by John Houghton, Riley Ellis, and Peter Holcomb published a newspaper named "Times Flies And Squares Sucks" based on their experiences and the specific things that transpired while they were at Times Square. Even though they "at least" had a fantastic time, they wrote in their newspaper about how boring the event was and how they even got lost once during the final countdown. The majority of complaints about Every New Year's Eve were that it was extremely crowded and that there was "no entertainment" whatsoever. Jennifer Duncan gave the event a mainly good assessment, calling it "intense" due to the large number of people screaming and chanting quite loudly. For the 1951 issue, Uriah Stevenson, a writer for a newspaper firm, created a five-page piece headlined "Times Square Today: Is New Year's Eve Meh Or YEEP!" Similar to other reviewers' opinions, he described the event as "very joyful" and noted that the majority of the crowd cheered. However, like other situations, Uriah observed that he was trapped in the "same area" in his list of main difficulties.

Although the response to VTimes Square New Year's Celebration has been largely good in recent years, the event has been plagued by complaints over crowd control and management.