In a revealing sign of an aging nation and a more conservative time, a family-oriented, alcohol-free celebration called First Night is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to the traditional excesses of New Year's Eve.
Since its relatively modest beginning in Boston in 1976, when 60,000 people turned out to usher in the New Year with fireworks, First Night is expected to attract several million adults and children Wednesday night in 170 cities, including Salt Lake City. Celebrations are planned from Maui, Hawaii, to Portsmouth, N.H., plus 17 cities in Canada.First Night gatherings usually take place downtown and feature musicians and mimes, poets and puppeteers, sculptors and storytellers and other family entertainment rather than the drinking and revelry of traditional adults-only New Year's blowouts.
The number of cities with First Night celebrations has more than tripled since 1990, when 55 cities celebrated First Night. Since then the celebration's growth has been stimulated by tougher laws against drunken driving and evolving attitudes about welcoming in the new year.
"What First Night has done," said Paulette Lynch, executive director of the celebration in Monterey, Calif., "is appeal to people who had gone through cycles of excess, of getting smashed on New Year's Eve, then sitting home lonely and bored."
While not likely in the foreseeable future to overtake the traditional champagne salutes to Auld Lang Syne, First Night is nevertheless putting its stamp firmly on New Year's Eve celebrations. And in cities large and small it is also bringing people downtown for the first time in years - and even bringing them back during the year.
"We're expecting 27,000 people, including a lot of people who never come downtown except to work," said Mary Ann Jackson, the executive director of First Night in Akron, Ohio.
More than 1,200 entertainers and 150 events are on tap in Akron, including orchestras, dance troupes, storytellers, ice sculptors, clowns and magicians. Last year, on its initial First Night, Akron drew 20,000 to the event, despite widespread skepticism that it would succeed.
"We had trouble attracting food vendors," Jackson said, "because they didn't believe we'd bring lots of people downtown for an alcohol-free event. Now everybody wants to be here."
When Hartford held its initial First Night nine years ago, only 6,000 people showed up. "This is a business community that kind of rolls up at 5 o'clock, when everybody goes home to he suburbs," said Pam Amodio, the director of events management for the Hartford Downtown Council. It also did not help that Hartford has been plagued by gang violence. But 30,000 people showed up at First Night last year, filling restaurants and hotels, "And there has never been a single incident of any kind."
Geri Guardino, executive director of First Night Boston, said: "Before First Night started, you couldn't even find a place to buy a sandwich in downtown. Now that's all changed."
Depending on the weather Wednesday night, Boston expects well more than the 1 million who showed up on a bitterly cold New Year's Eve last year to watch more than 1,000 musicians, dancers, actors and mimes. Many other cities also expect record turnouts, while 26 cities are holding First Night for the first time, including Charleston, S.C., and Newark, N.J. Washington is planning to hold First Night in 1999.
Despite being ravaged by floods that devastated downtown Grand Forks, N.D., last April, that spunky city of about 70,000 residents expects about 10,000 people Wednesday night, 2,000 more than last year, for its dozens of First Night performances.