A New Year’s Eve tradition continues in western Massachusetts next week, with First Night Northampton ringing in 2025 on Tuesday.
Times Square has its ball drop and Hotel Northampton has its ball rising – all part of the Hampshire County city’s New Year’s festivities.
That means plenty of fireworks as well as a hundred musical performances across nearly two dozen venues in the city.
First Night Northampton, now entering its 40th year, brings thousands of residents and visitors to the city’s downtown for a night of entertainment.
It’s put on in-part by the Northampton Arts Council – a job that both starts and ends in January, according to executive director Brian Foote.
“I'm going to start producing First Night for next year [on] Jan. 15, 2025,” he told WAMC on Dec. 19, as final preparations for this year’s event were underway. “The application goes out in April for all the artists - we got about 160 applications this year and 90 percent of the artists we chose came from those applications, and we booked about 10% of them through our talent scouting that we do all year.”
Speaking with WAMC, Foote says this year’s iteration will feature 23 venues hosting over 100 booked performances – ranging from folk and klezmer to jam bands to magic shows and puppets.
The first shows start at noon and continue throughout the day at spots like the Academy of Music, the Parlor Room and St. John’s Episcopal – with family acts early in the day.
Fireworks are slated for around 6 p.m., with performances continuing until 11:30. Then comes the countdown and spectacle off of King Street.
“We have an old-fashioned ball raising, which, in 1989, it was the brainchild of Paul Benjamin and another person with Paul, and they constructed the ball in conjunction with the Hotel Northampton, and they created a crank system to have a little … antithesis to New York City,” Foote explains. “Instead of the ball going down, it was going up and I think that's a really interesting part of the history of Northampton's First Night.”
Depending on the weather, the executive director says, the event’s known to bring thousands of people into the city, packing bars, restaurants and venues along the way – making a not insignificant impact on the local economy.
The event has a budget of at least $75,000. Proceeds, including the sale of special admission “buttons,” end up helping the Art Council fund some of the 30-40 events it supports during the year.
Foote says there are plenty of acts to recommend, but if you get a chance, there’s a couple in particular to definitely seek out.
That includes two performances by “The Folk Implosion” at the Academy of Music at 9:15 and 10:15 p.m. respectively. There’s also the “Chuckling Charlie Comedy Bus,” launching from the city’s rainbow crosswalk on Main Street, featuring comedian acts from 7 until 11 p.m.
But ultimately, Foote says, there’s plenty to pick from.
“100 performances, 12 hours – [at] noon it starts, Fireworks at 6:15 p.m., the ball raising altogether [is] at midnight, with live DJs, Peace & Rhythm DJs - it's a dance party in the streets,” he recounted. “Feel free to come out - that's free to do, the fireworks are free. If you want to buy a button, you can see over 100 performances, and Northampton is open - you can go to another restaurant or another bar, they're going to have their own programming outside of our 23 venues. So, I'd say there's over 35 places to go in Northampton, outside of First Night, so, just come down and just have fun with your local humans and see them in-person and don't watch it on TV.”
