Village Trustee Jeannine Mayer says that this year’s New Year’s Eve celebration will be bigger, louder and more awesome than last year’s.
Last year’s inaugural event attracted a few hundred revelers. This year the committee that puts the celebration together hopes to attract a lot more.
The celebration will be held at the intersection of Main and Partition St. Streets will be closed. Markertek will install a huge video screen on top of the Exchange’s porch that will show the countdown live from Times Square.
Mike Iavonne and Kevin Brady of Precision Flow will donate the crane that will hoist Saugerties’ own large ball, which will be lowered at the midnight countdown.
This year’s celebration begins at 10:30 p.m. and will feature DJ Riley Cornelison and the Post Modern Music band.
Local Boy Scout troops will provide hot chocolate, there will be kettle corn, and many of the local restaurants and bars will be featuring entertainment and food and drink specials, Mayer said.
The village decided to hold the event to give residents a nearby place to celebrate.
“When we talked about holding a celebration last year, the committee, which includes members of the Saugerties community, Chamber of Commerce, business leaders and Police Chief Joseph Sinagra, wanted a way to be able to celebrate the New Year here in the village,” Mayer said.
“We wanted to help our local businesses, restaurants and bars rather than see residents go out of town to celebrate,” she added.
So officials put together last year’s first celebration, which was a small affair, but still attracted several hundred people.
The celebration is being sponsored by the village of Saugerties, “at no cost,” Mayer said. “Everything is being donated,” she said.
A number of communities in the Hudson Valley including Albany and Saratoga hold a First Night celebration, which include dozens of events throughout their communities such as bands, comedians, art shows and dances. When asked if the Saugerties committee might consider such a celebration here, Mayer said, “Right now, we think the event will be as big as we want, but in future years it might be bigger.”