The sad decline of Boston's First Night

[ron_newman]

New Year's Eve is coming up, which means it will be time for Boston's annual First Night celebration. Here's this year's schedule ... but wait, what happened to the Hynes Family Festival, opera, classical music, dance, indoor rock bands, jazz, improv, comedy, film festivals, experimental visual art, etc. etc

Comments

[volare]

Sad state of affairs. I was part of First Night many many moons ago, when it was crowded, boisterous, music and dancing around every corner... I don't understand what happened.

[ron_newman]

It was that way even for the last two years, after the nonprofit folded and the city took the event over. Behind the scenes I'm sure things were very different, but to a visitor it looked pretty much the same (except suddenly there were many more 'Burners' presenting art)

[ron_newman]

There are a few other events, not officially part of First Night, on their "Outside the Square" page. Some of these, such as the Frog Pond Skating Spectacular, Handel & Haydn Jubilee mini-concerts, and the King's Chapel organ concert, used to be on the official schedule in past years.

[ron_newman]

Quincy used to have its own separate First Night, but I can't find any information about it this year, so I guess that tradition has ended.

[xo_kizzy_xo]

Quincy hasn't had a First Night for a few years now. Can't remember if it was a lack of funding or not enough interest (i.e., everyone going into Boston).

[hikerpoet]

I feel like there was a stretch of *really* bad weather for a few years in a row that affected the momentum.
It was a pretty good thing going, and one shouldn't be surprised by that unpredictability this time of year, but I feel like there was a decent stretch of extra bad nights (five degrees, or bad ice storm, or blizzard) that hit it at just the wrong time for several New Year's Eve's in a row around the several years before it was handed off.
I consider myself super outdoorsy and community, even, but there was a lot of bad timing that way for a stretch in there that made me not blame people for getting gunshy for planning on it.

[ron_newman]

True -- but except for the fireworks, parade, and ice sculptures, most of this event has generally been indoors. The two last years of FIGMENT First Night on the Common were fun, but also a recent innovation (which sadly won't return this year).

[hikerpoet]

Yeah, but that was hard even when it comes to commuting (even by public transport--there are a lot of people who came from out of town and logistics were a bit tougher even if they were taking it) to making it from event to event and so on. There was definitely some bad luck there! I feel like 4th of July could take a similar hit if there was a run of incredibly bad thunderstormy afternoons/nights a handful of years in a row, but thankfully it hasn't hit just right (wrong?) in quite the same way, though!

I do love Figment! I always go to the summer festival, and sometimes New York as well.

[xo_kizzy_xo]

I'd only gone to a couple of First Nights (heh, I always seem to work on New Year's, but I digress). A lot of my friends stopped going because it was either too cold, too crowded, or too much of a pain to hop on the T.