All systems go for big bash on Austin's first First Night
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, December 29, 2005
After a year of campaigning, fundraising and planning for an artsy New Year's celebration, musicians are tuning their instruments and dancers are toeing their way through their last rehearsals as Saturday's half-million-dollar New Year's Eve bash approaches.
Preparations for First Night Austin, the giant party, are "chaotic and on schedule," Executive Director Ann Graham said Wednesday.
More on First Night
• A night to remember
• Schedule of events
When: 2 p.m. to midnight Saturday
Tickets: Outdoor events are free. Indoor events require a button, which can be purchased in advance for $8 or at the event for $10. Children 6 and under are free.
Information: 476-5577, www.firstnightaustin.org.
Parking & public transportation: Free parking in State Capitol Complex garages and surface lots, as well as free Dillo shuttle service between 1:30 p.m. and 3 a.m. For additional parking information see www.firstnightaustin.org.
Advance button sales:
• H-E-B stores
• Central Market, North Lamar Boulevard and West 38th Street
• Austin Children's Museum, 201 Colorado St.
• Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau, 209 E. Sixth St.
• Austin Museum of Art, 823 Congress Ave.
• Book People, 603 N. Lamar Blvd.
• Mexic-Arte Museum, 419 Congress Ave.
In a flurry of preparations, First Night staff have been settling insurance issues, solving parking problems and smoothing out complimentary hotel rooms for some visiting dignitaries.
"There's nothing we haven't expected," Graham said. "It's just, when time becomes condensed in the last three days, we start to feel the heat."
From early Saturday afternoon to midnight, 80 commissioned artists, as well as hundreds of other performers — including drummers, a yo-yo troupe, mariachi bands, storytellers and flamenco dancers — will perform throughout downtown.
The idea for First Night was hatched in Boston in 1976; artists there mounted installations and performances that encouraged residents to turn out and celebrate.
Austin is one of about 120 cities worldwide to mount a First Night celebration. Admission will be free (people older than 6 will need a $10 button — $8 if purchased today or Friday — to access indoor venues), and 65,000 people are expected to attend the festivities.
Organizers have raised about $425,000, not including in-kind donations such as hotel rooms or extended Capital Metro bus service, with much of the money coming from corporate donors. Samsung has chipped in $100,000, and the City of Austin has contributed $44,000 from its parks and recreation, convention center and economic growth and redevelopment budgets.
More than 50 percent of the $425,000 will be used to pay the artists.
First Night isn't the only New Year's celebration in Austin. Bob Woody, president of the East Sixth Street Community Association and an owner of 16 downtown businesses, will bring out the Rising Star of Texas, just as he has every New Year's Eve for the past decade. In that celebration, people crowd onto East Sixth Street at midnight to grab a glimpse of a lighted star that rises 40 feet at midnight.
"New York City does the ball drop, and Austin, Texas, does the Rising Star," he said.
He said his celebration is paid for by his association, which is funded by business owners.
"We appreciate (First Night) uses city dollars to fund that," he said. (The last city-sponsored New Year's Eve bash was the 1999 millennium celebration.) "We've been doing this for ten years, and it doesn't cost the city anything."
The weather forecast, one of the chief logistical matters for any New Year's Eve celebration, looks good.
"No one likes a drought, but I wouldn't mind if it lasts just through the first of January," Graham said.
asherprice@statesman.com; 445-3643
