For more than 20 years, First Night Oneonta has been a free, family-friendly opportunity for New Year’s Eve fun.
Presented by Hill City Celebrations, formerly First Night Oneonta, activities are schedule for 5-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 31 at Foothills Performing Arts and Civic Center, 24 Market St. in Oneonta.
Organizers said highlights will include performances and demonstrations by local dance and martial arts groups, children’s activities from Oneonta World of Learning and entertainment from Bobby Curious, BJ the Clown, the Hill City Ice Queens and Friends and Mike the Juggler.
First Night chairperson Connie Herzig said that while the event has seen changes, it’s remained true to the First Night mission. Introduced in Boston in 1975, First Night emerged as an alcohol-free alternative to New Year’s Eve celebrations.
“It’s been done here for a very long time, but it’s undergone many iterations and changes, as any event that hangs around for a while will,” Herzig said. “It was in 30 different locations in the city, and there was a parade and fireworks and a bonfire in its first iteration, but it has progressed and gotten smaller and more pointedly aimed at families and children.
“When the Festival of Lights came in five years ago, we discovered there was no way we could sustain such a huge undertaking, so, it is still a huge undertaking, but it’s a smaller footprint,” she continued. “We have entertainment and moving entertainment and some food and lots of things for kids and families to enjoy. The idea of First Night is to give families and people an opportunity to experience art and culture on nights of the year when there is traditionally a lot of alcohol use, because it’s important to provide opportunities for fun without the use of alcohol. That’s what started the tradition of First Night and we still follow that mantra.”
Sean Lewis, First Night vice chairperson, said that he’s been involved “for a couple years,” though the event began in Oneonta “about 26 years ago.”
“Mark Drnek was one of the founders,” he said. “Carol Mandigo, Doug Brenner was involved, Dr. Stan Fox, and Connie,” he said, “but most of the board players have changed over the years and there’s been turnover, so even the folks that were in charge of entertainment last year are no longer with the organization, so I kind of had to start from scratch. We’re into the next generation of the board.”
Lewis said the First Night mission applies to each of the group’s three events.
“The mission of our organization is alcohol-free, drug-free and smoke-free events,” he said. “It started with First Night as a New Year’s Eve celebration that is all kid- and family-friendly — our focus is on kids and families — then it expanded to include the Hometown Fourth of July and parade and, right now, we have the Festival of Lights in Neahwa (Park). Everything we do is free to the community, there’s never a charge to people.”
Executing the First Night event takes months of planning.
“We started planning for this in about September,” Herzig said. “I reached out to Foothills and they always save the space, then we have to get it insured and invite the performers and we’ve tried to flesh out the entertainment piece. It ramps up as it gets closer. We have committee meetings once a month … then we all converge at Foothills at 10 in the morning on the 31st to build a balloon arch and a blacklight room and get the chairs and tables and whole shebang ready to go.”
“It’s an all-volunteer organization,” Lewis said. “None of our board members are compensated. The most precious thing you can give is time, and all of our board members give a lot of their time. The organization is much more of a mix of new blood and old blood today.”
Lewis and Herzig said that though a roughly seven-person committee plans First Night, Hill City Celebrations is always seeking new members.
“Operationally, we’re a very small board and we do the three huge events,” Herzig said, adding that First Night is “actually the smallest of the three in terms of attendance,” drawing about 500 people. The Hometown Fourth of July celebration, she said, attracts “thousands” and the 2023 Festival of Lights drew roughly 16,000.
“It’s a targeted 500 that probably benefit from exposure to arts and culture and a supportive atmosphere,” she said.
Attendees, Herzig said, come from all over, but mostly Oneonta area.
“I think it pulls from a wider area than just the city of Oneonta,” Lewis said. “It’s early in the evening, so it allows the parents to do something special with their kids, to mark the special day of New Year’s Eve, without interfering with plans they may have later in the night. The demographic is families with kids, although not all our visitors have kids. We get a fair amount of senior citizens that come down just because it’s part of the fabric of the community.”
Sources said keeping First Night free relies on strong fiscal and practical support.
“If people come down and feel like donating to the cause, we will be accepting donations for Hill City Celebrations,” Lewis said.
“So much today costs so much — a fortune — and this is something we can provide to the community for free, which enriches them and allows them to spend time together as a family, and they’re age-appropriate things,” Herzig said. “Not every family can afford to go out to dinner or the movies on New Year’s Eve, and this gives them a special place to go on a special day.”
“We survive on donations and we send letters out for donations and we’re supported by a few foundations, but a lot of our support comes from the generous public,” she continued. “Traditionally we have, for the last five years, raised about $60,000 a year to do our three events. We have to pay the performers and Foothills a couple thousand for the night, so it was about $8,000 last year, but that’s part of our fundraising that we do and we’re grateful to be supported, and appreciative of any new support.”
Such efforts, Herzig said, are worth it.
“If you are there and you see the kids and the families enjoying music, enjoying art, enjoying activities, it is so rewarding,” she said. “It makes you feel like we ought to be doing this every week. It is a lot of work, and it is rewarding.”
For questions, email firstnightoneonta@gmail.com or, for more information and a list of entertainment, find “Hill City Celebrations” or “First Night New Year’s Eve Party – Dec. 31, 2024” on Facebook.