First Night is the oldest and largest New Year’s Eve celebration of the arts in North America. It takes place on Dec. 31, 2011. This is the 36th edition. It was founded in 1976 by a group of artists and community activists seeking to create an alternative, arts-oriented event for New Year’s Eve.

It is called “First Night” and not “Last Night” because it is about looking forward, to the New Year.

It has been replicated by over 200 cities and towns, and this year there are about 70 First Nights in the world. This year’s event features over 1000 artists in 200 performances and exhibitions at 40 indoor and outdoor venues around Boston. Expected attendance is one million celebratory people.

The FedEx Family Festival starts at 1 p.m. at the Hynes, and we close with the Midnight Fireworks over Boston Harbor. A few of our museum cultural partners are open to First Night button holders a little earlier than 1 p.m.

Funding
• First Night is a private non-profit corporation, supported by public and private donations, corporate sponsorship and First Night button sales. More than 65% of the annual budget funds artistic programming and production. First Night artists are paid for their work.
• The City of Boston is a major partner and supporter, providing many services. First Night could not happen without the generosity of the Mayor and the City.
• The annual budget for First Night 2011 is $1,020,000. Button sales typically cover about 45% of the expenses for First Night which include the festival and First Night Neighborhood Network, a year round community outreach and arts education program for over 1,500 kids and their families in Boston’s neighborhoods.
• If the budget is 1.02 million and 1 million people attend, that means First Night’s cost per person served is just $1.02. Quite a value!
• According to a recent economic index, First Night Boston generates $29 million dollars for Boston businesses in the fourth quarter. This figure does not include the admission fee (button revenue), and because the study is a few years old, doesn’t take into account the recently enacted Boston hotel and meals tax.
• First Night is grateful for the support of its major sponsors, who include The City of Boston, Thomas M. Menino, Mayor; WBZ-TV; The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority; FedEx, The Boston Foundation; Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau; and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. First Night also hopes for more corporate and individual support in the New Year.
• First Night is grateful for the support of its many media partners, who donate advertising time and space. They are WBZ-TV, The Boston Parents Paper, WGBH 89.7 FM, WFNX, and 92.5 The River.

The Grand Procession
The Grand Procession is the heart of First Night Boston, and it has been since the beginning, 36 years ago. This year’s theme is “Over the Horizon.” The procession will contain four sections, differentiated by colors, and led by a different piece from the Back Alley Puppet Theatre and Puppeteers Cooperative, whose founders have participated in all 36 First Nights in Boston. The Procession is usually led by Mayor Menino and First Night Executive Director Geri Guardino, and begins at 5:30 p.m. in front of the Hynes Convention Center. It proceeds down Boylston St., turning left on Charles, and ending at Charles and Beacon Sts. There are approximately 1000 people in 35 different groups who will march in the Procession. Many are participants in community programs that run workshops in schools and community centers to prepare for this signature First Night feature.

The Ice Sculptures
First Night will have five ice sculptures – three on Boston Common and two in Copley Square. Each weighs 30 – 45 tons. One standard block of ice is 22”x 44” and weighs 300 pounds. There are 2000 pounds in a ton. On Dec. 31, sculptures are illuminated with a brilliant display of theatrical colors.

• ICE SCULPTURE: Donald Chapelle/Brilliant Ice, The Looking Glass, Boston Common Boylston and Tremont
Reflections of the four seasons, an exhibit and interactive tour of texture, light and an embrace of nature’s gifts. Don Chapelle of Brilliant Ice Sculpture creates a piece with walls that have seasonal items frozen into the ice. Weather permitting, patrons will be able to walk through the sculpture. (If it’s not cold enough, and there is melting, this won’t be possible!)

• ICE SCULPTURE: Steve Rose, Puerto Rico, Boston Common Frog Pond
Let JetBlue Getaways transport you to the sunny beaches of Puerto Rico. Master ice carver Steve Rose pays tribute to the island of Puerto Rico, in ice. Sponsored by JetBlue.

• ICE SCULPTURE: Steve Rose/Ice Effects, TADpole Turns Ten, Boston Common TADpole Playground
The Highland Street Foundation celebrates the 10th anniversary of the beloved TADpole Playground with some First Night Frogs, in ice.

• ICE SCULPTURE: Eric Fontecchio/Brookline Ice, The Long Count, Copley Square, all day and night
A celebration of the end of the Mayan calendar, but certainly not the end of the world, with an Aztec pyramid and a calendar stone. It will be accompanied by a 56-minute music loop, called “The Longcount,” by ice carving team member Tom Fahey.

• ICE SCULPTURE: Eric Fontecchio/Brookline Ice, Glass Icicles, Copley Square
Eric was inspired by the MFA’s new acquisition Lime Green Icicle Tower by glass artist Dale Chihuly. The Museum was able to purchase this magical piece for all to enjoy thanks to the generosity of enthusiastic members of the public, who gave gifts large and small. Bring your family to the MFA to see the 42-foot original. The spectacular sculpture is made of 2,342 pieces of glass, weighs 10,000 pounds—and never melts! Sponsored by the Museum of Fine Arts.

People get mad because the ice sculptures get knocked down around January 2, but this is because the DPW deems them unsafe, and we don’t have the budget to provide security much beyond the event. As one staffer told an irate patron who came on January 3 to see ice sculptures one year, “Would you call up the fourth of July people on July 7 and give them a hard time because you missed the fireworks?”

FIREWORKS

Midnight Fireworks over Boston Harbor

Good viewing spots include the Waterfront from South Boston to Charlestown, as well as parts of East Boston.

The Zambellis are among the oldest and largest fireworks manufacturers in the US. Over 100 years ago, Antonio Zambelli moved from Italy with closely guarded fireworks formulas, handwritten in a small black book. Son George, who died in 2003, grew the family business, which employs three of his children, two sons-in-law, 50 year-round employees and hundreds of seasonal workers in Colorado, Maryland, New England, California and Florida. The Zambellis produced more than 1,800 shows on July 4th, including some of the most elaborate displays in the nation: Denver, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Mount Rushmore, St. Louis and Baltimore. They will light up the skies on New Years in Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Marina Del Ray, to name a few.

Midnight Fireworks FAQ’s
Q: Why do you see the explosion before hearing it?
A: Sound travels at 742 miles per hour, but light travels 670,616,625.6 miles per hour.

Q: How are the colors made?
A: Master pyrotechnicians build shells with bright burning metallic salts, which may be intensified by adding chlorine compounds. The salts are tightly packed into balls called stars, and placed inside the shell. The colors are: green / Barium Nitrate; blue / Cooper Salts and Chlorine; red / Strontium Nitrate; amber & orange / Charcoal & Carbon; white / Magnesium & Aluminum; and yellow / Sodium Salts.

Q: How are the booms, bangs, hums and whistles made?
A: Salutes, made with titanium, produce the concussion booms at the end of a show. Smaller salutes made of flash powder or a titanium mixture produce a flash and bang. Whistles are tubes that fly across the sky making shrieks and whistles. Hammers spin and scream.

Q: How big are the shells and how high so they go?
A: Three inches to twelve inches diameter, or the size of a tennis ball to a basketball. They weigh from six ounces to twelve pounds and fly as high as 100 to 1,500 feet.

Q: What is the most popular shell design?
A: Chrysanthemums & Peonies are popular. Weeping Willows have extra charcoal and burn an amber color, with a long lasting descent. Strobes are clusters of flashing silvery lights that drift slowly to the ground.

The Performers
(I can’t guarantee some of these facts, but believe them to be true.)
• The artist who have performed in the most First Nights are Sara Peattie of the Back Alley Puppet Theatre. She’s been with us all 36 years.
• This year, we have added two great new performance venues: New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall and Boston University Theatre, home of the Huntington Theatre Company
• Ken Kovach of the Skyriders holds the Guinness World Record for consecutive jumping through a hula hoop in mid air. I am not sure what the technical term for that is.
• First Night Board member Ed Tiffany has his own group that dresses up and marches in the Grand Procession. They’re called “Geometric Progression.”
• First Night’s Neighborhood Network serves about 1500 children in the Boston area, and 27 of the FNNN groups will be performing at this year’s event.

The Staff and Administration
• Three full time staffers work year-round planning First Night.
• First Night artists are paid.
• The call to artists is sent out to hundreds of artists, agents and community groups in February. About 350 artists and groups proposed projects. Projects are reviewed by staff, and a volunteer arts advisory panel, chosen for their expertise in a given genre. About 200 projects are accepted, and the staff tries to have all of the programming secured by the time the button is unveiled in November.
• Seven part timers are added to the office staff from the fall through the event.
• The week of the event, the production staff numbers about 150.
• Over 300 volunteers answer phones, act as ushers, paint faces, become parade marshals, and generally help make sure things go smoothly.
• Staffers also don’t really have time to go home in the final week. Most move into the Park Plaza Hotel (the official First Night hotel) sometime between December 26 and 30, and stay through the event. The production staff usually stays through about January 5, because it takes about that long to take down the show.
• First Night staff, crew and volunteers need to eat, and food has been donated this year by UBurger, California Pizza Kitchen, Boloco, Cheesecake Factory, Blue Diamond Growers, Food Should Taste Good, JetBlue, Polar Beverages, Sabra, Vitamin Water, and Zico.

Dogs are not allowed at our indoor locations. (If you see a dog, it’s really a person dressed up as a dog, or maybe a child whose face is painted to look like a dog.) You can certainly bring your dog into town, but frankly, I wouldn’t. I know my dog would be completely freaked out by the loud noises – fireworks, those annoying vuvuzelas, marching bands – he’d be a shaking wreck for days. So, as you can see below, Charlie Ashmont is safely tucked away in an undisclosed location, where he’ll enjoy a bully stick tonight while ringing in the New Year.

CHANGES TO FIRST NIGHT PROGRAM SINCE PRESS
UPDATED DEC. 29, 2011, 7 p.m.

• The New York Dolls are NOT performing at First Night.
• One of Don Chapelle’s ICE SCULPTURES has been MOVED from Boston Common Brewer’s Fountain to Boston Common near the corner of Boylston and Tremont, across from the movie theatre.
• Jenny Dee and the Deelinquents are NOT performing at First Night
• Suzanne Vega is performing at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall at 9 p.m.
• Michael Tarbox is performing at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall at 8 p.m.
• Urbanity Dance has been added to the FedEx Family Festival at 3 and 4 p.m. in Room 308 at the Hynes.
• DJ Main Fader has been added to Copley Square (outdoors) from 7 – 9 p.m.
• Viva Viva is NOT performing at the Parkman Bandstand on Boston Common.
• Chris North Dream Quartet is performing at the Parkman Bandstand from 7:30 – 9 p.m.
• Changes to the Grand Procession: WTKK AND Tony Barrie Marching Band are NOT in the Procession. Added to the Procession are the Veterans of Our Nation Honor Guard, Boston Landmarks Orchestra Brass Band’s tribute to Fay Chandler, South End Dynamite, Mather School Dorchester, Capone Confetti Cannons.
• Marissa Nadler is NOT performing at First Night. She will not be replaced. As result, the set times have changed as follows: Drew O’Doherty 7:45 – 8:30 p.m.; Ida 8:45 – 9:45 p.m.; Cass McCombs 10:15 – 11:30 p.m.
• The times listed for Festival of International Short Films at the MFA are incorrect. Correct times are 10:30 am, noon, 1:30 and 3 p.m.
• Magpie Puppets at FedEx Family Fest canceled.
• The Puppet People are performing A Christmas Carol at the Hynes, at 2 and 4 p.m. in Room 302

We expected ice sculptors to load on to the Boston Common yesterday, but because of the icky weather forecast, we put it off until today. I have just heard that Don Chapelle and his team are just starting to load in at their site, which is near the corner of Boylston and Tremont, across from the movie theatre. In addition, I’m told Steve Rose and his team will load in at the Frog Pond sometime late this afternoon or early tomorrow.

Today, you’re not likely to see much more than the stacking of these HUGE blocks of ice. They have to stack before they carve. Though there will be some activity, things won’t really get cooking until later in the week. Chapelle tends to work during the day, and Rose tends to work overnight.

The Copley Square team is not expected to load in until Saturday. They like to carve in a freezer and assemble on site.

All of this is subject to change, but just wanted to let you know what I know!