New Year's Eve In Times Square

December 31, 2007 5:52 PM

Times Square: Crossroads of the World is the official website of Times Square in New York City. An estimated 1 million people from all over the world are in Times Square tonight, celebrating New Year's Eve and the 100th anniversary of the ball drop (with a new eco-friendly, LED-lighted ball). Also on the site: A History of New Year's Eve in Times Square, a Then and Now interactive timeline, a Signs of the Times gallery, and much more. The FAQ is also interesting.
posted by amyms (35 comments total)

Say it with me, shout it out like you know it's true:

Fuck Times Square.
posted by secret about box at 5:54 PM on December 31, 2007 [2 favorites]

1 million people made their way to Times Square, and it's important that the ball has LED lights?

Hmmm.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:00 PM on December 31, 2007

Are they using an environmentally friendly power source to charge up Dick Clark this year?
posted by Auden at 6:22 PM on December 31, 2007 [2 favorites]

Will there be portable public restrooms available?

No.

Is alcohol or champagne allowed?

No. Public drinking is illegal in New York City. Police will confiscate alcohol.

Sounds like ripping good fun to me! Being packed into Times Square with a zillion other people sans booze and full of piss doesn't sound like a good time to me. I think I'll pass.
posted by curlyelk at 6:27 PM on December 31, 2007

Up until recently, I lived about 3 blocks from Times Square so I've had to do the NYE thing with visitors 4 times already (about 3 and a half times too many). Last night I noticed that Charmin has sponsored a couple free bathrooms there, which are probably the most popular attraction tonight.
posted by JaredSeth at 6:35 PM on December 31, 2007

I would never never go to Times Square on NYE.

That being said, to one and all on teh Metafilter. May the new year provide you with many interesting FPPs and may all your Metatalk call outs hit 400 comments.
posted by Skygazer at 6:46 PM on December 31, 2007

Uh..Happy New Year that is...
posted by Skygazer at 6:47 PM on December 31, 2007

Survived several Times Square New Year's Eves. Not fun.

Can see the ball drop from my funky tenement rooftop. Much more fun! Party with the neighbors. Always worried that a nasty person will take advantage of the gazillion who gather there, a knot in my tummy until the hour passes peacefully.

May there be peace on Earth. Loving wishes to all MeFites for the New Year.
posted by nickyskye at 6:49 PM on December 31, 2007 [1 favorite]

Yo, check the video of the new ball. It is SO PURTY! - Really!
...But swarovski horses could not drag me behind those barricades.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 6:57 PM on December 31, 2007 [1 favorite]

I would say, having done it the one NYE I was in NYC, that it is something to be done once in one's life. Not having done it at all is too few. More than once may well be too many.

This year, I'm such a party animal that I'm editing the Times Square Ball article on Wikipedia.
posted by dhartung at 7:03 PM on December 31, 2007

When one of my friends moved to NY he did the whole Times Square new years eve thing, saying that everyone should do it once. He also stressed the nobody should do it twice. Unless you love urine, drunkards, and uncomfortably large crowds. That pretty much sounds like a nightmare to me.

Happy new years Mefites - play safe and have as much or little fun as your revelry needs require.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 7:06 PM on December 31, 2007

Naw, man, the REAL New Year's Eve party is happening HERE!

Happy New Year!
posted by not_on_display at 7:09 PM on December 31, 2007

The 9,576 Philips Luxeon LEDs replaced the 600 incandescent and halogen bulbs of the previous Ball. The new Ball is more than twice as bright and capable of creating a palette of more than 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns. Yet, the entire Times Square Ball will be lit with approximately the same amount of electricity as it takes to power ten toasters or a single oven/range.

That's great, and all. Isn't it odd, though, that they don't compare the energy consumption with that of the old ball?

Not that the energy consumption of the New Year's ball is significant in any way.
posted by Western Infidels at 7:11 PM on December 31, 2007

Hey, I've got a sick seven-month old trying to sleep here. Can you million people on my lawn, stfu? Thanks.
posted by papercake at 7:28 PM on December 31, 2007

Western Infidels: I'm sure it's much lower though. Ten toasters is about 13KW, which would make each of those 600 lights only 21 watts, which is very very dim for incandescent & halogens. Probably they're more like 100-500 watts each, so it is likely a 10x savings on the drop in the bucket that is the ball.
posted by aubilenon at 7:31 PM on December 31, 2007

Did NYE at Times Square once. Certainly a lot of fun when you are young and in a party mood, but not something I would ever want to do again. I'm sorry for the screaming people on your "lawn", papercake - I remember that you could hear the din of all those people from miles and miles away.

Happy New Year, MeFites, hope it's a good one!
posted by gemmy at 7:35 PM on December 31, 2007

NickySkye: May there be peace on Earth. Loving wishes to all MeFites for the New Year.

Right back at you Nicky, and yes peace on earth, peace on earth...
posted by Skygazer at 7:37 PM on December 31, 2007

In Savannah, we drop a giant peach with NO led lights and drink as much as we goddamn want to and it's a lot warmer, so suck on that Times Square.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:39 PM on December 31, 2007 [1 favorite]

One of these years, I'm going down the road to Mt. Olive, NC (home of the Mt. Olive Pickle Company, natch). That's where they drop a giant pickle on New Year's.

Happy New Year everyone, and yeah, peace on earth. Please.
posted by marxchivist at 8:04 PM on December 31, 2007

peace everyone...

I'm sitting in the living room with the wife and five cats.... drinking a bottle of inexpensive Cabernet..and... I bet I'm happier than all those folks in times square...

happy new year....
posted by HuronBob at 9:11 PM on December 31, 2007

Last night I noticed that Charmin has sponsored a couple free bathrooms there, which are probably the most popular attraction tonight.

Do you have to squeeze into them?
posted by Tube at 9:53 PM on December 31, 2007

Without seeming all . . . y'know . . . maudlin and shit, I love you guys, man, all my MeFi brethren and cistern. Happy new years. I hope the next 365 days bring a whole shitload of happiness, humor, satisfaction, fulfillment, and a whole bunch of great books and even better sex and liquor.

Happy New Years, you wieners!
posted by John of Michigan at 10:18 PM on December 31, 2007

Happy New Year from Kansas! My husband is on duty tonight and my oldest child is out with friends, so it's just me and my youngest, here toasting with sparkling grape juice and watching movies. We just watched the ball drop in Times Square (rebroadcast for our time zone) and it looks like so much fun! (But I believe those of you who've said it should only be experienced once).
posted by amyms at 10:20 PM on December 31, 2007

Did it a little, once. I had an office a couple blocks away, so I could escape. ::yawn:: Nothing to recommend it. But I'm not a NYE party person. Only fun NYE I ever had was in New Orleans, in the French Quarter (Bourbon Street Pub, 1976/7, to be exact). Often I don't even stay up for the midnight thing.

I always found the ball drop seemed backwards to me. Send it up, not down.
posted by Goofyy at 10:28 PM on December 31, 2007

I just returned from Times Square.

The new ball is really quite nice. The old ball only had white lights--colors were projected onto it, so it was either white or a solid color.
The new led ball is full rgb, and programmable. And programmed. It went through a lot of different patterns--mostly geometric on its tessellation, but also free-form, and even a low-res spinning globe with green continents and blue oceans.

It was quite a lovely performance for anyone close enough to see it.

Also: the Charmin free bathrooms are long gone. They were a promotion that lasted only a few weeks, and ended about a year ago.
posted by hexatron at 10:52 PM on December 31, 2007

Also: the Charmin free bathrooms are long gone. They were a promotion that lasted only a few weeks, and ended about a year ago.

Oh dear. This marriage may be invalid, then!

According to the official website (yes, bathrooms with a website) they were open Nov. 19 to Dec. 31 this year.
posted by dhartung at 11:01 PM on December 31, 2007 [1 favorite]

I stand corrected on Charmin. They redid their promotion of a year ago, and I missed it. Darn.

The sight of all those bright young would-be entertainers, enthusiastically dancing in toilet-seat costumes, (head through the poop-hole), was really cheering--to anyone who made a different career choice.
posted by hexatron at 11:20 PM on December 31, 2007

Goofyy writes "I always found the ball drop seemed backwards to me. Send it up, not down."

Even better, they could put it on top of one of these. Instead of a countdown, there is a contest - the new year can only be officially celebrated when someone rings the bell with the hammer, sending the electric ball smashing into the bell. If it explodes, bonus.
posted by krinklyfig at 11:24 PM on December 31, 2007 [1 favorite]

Something like that. You can see it, right? I know I can ...
posted by krinklyfig at 11:25 PM on December 31, 2007

Goofyy, want to see the ball go up? Come to Richmond, VA. Much easier to see from a distance. That clip is from 2006-07. The 2007-08 display was much the same, but with what seemed like two or three times the crowd.

I've already heard someone refer to 2008 as "The Ocho" and I don't like it.

Happy new year, MeFi.
posted by emelenjr at 11:55 PM on December 31, 2007

An estimated 1 million people from all over the world are in Times Square tonight

Riiight. And a billion people watch the Oscars every year.
posted by mediareport at 11:58 PM on December 31, 2007

Someone could make a lot of money with toilets on wheels there. And I don't mean people pissing on tires.

Or does the mafia run the portable toilets business, too?
posted by pracowity at 1:55 AM on January 1, 2008

I work in the Times Square/Hells Kitchen area, and I can't get out fast enough after work on New Year's Eve. Port Authority and the 42nd street subway stations fill with policemen and military personnel (a number equipped with machine guns) and get their trash cans wrapped in foreboding black plastic (unusable, so as to be a deterrent to bomb-planting) and the entire area morphs into what feels like military lock-down in anticipation for the siege of revelry about to happen. Although at 6:00 last night things seemed a bit more relaxed than in recent past years, it's still the farthest thing from festive I can imagine.
posted by stagewhisper at 6:58 AM on January 1, 2008

All of the local news reporters' slant was how safe everything was- with NYC's father-figure Mayor Bloomberg (again, speaking as if we are all 7 years old) ensuring that everyone in Times Square is safe from the terrorists tonight. Could they maybe give that fear-mongering propaganda a rest on a holiday?
posted by wfc123 at 9:41 AM on January 1, 2008

I found a great way to enjoy Times Square on New Years. I went to NYC in late 1998 for the set of four Phish shows at Madison Square Garden. After the New Years Eve show let out, it was like 1:30 AM...and Times Square was like a scene out of "I Am Legend", totally devoid of people, no crowds, just trash blowing in the breeze and the occasional passed-out drunk laying in a doorway. Perfect! ;)
posted by jamstigator at 12:50 PM on January 1, 2008