Since Portland abandoned its citywide New Year’s Eve observance last year, events in Maine that celebrate the New Year tend to be small, decentralized and sometimes offbeat. Last December, the City of Portland, decided to cancel its First Night event because of the lack of support from the business community, who had always footed the bill. Now it seems that there was more to the story than simply the lack of support from the private sector. Some cited the city’s attempt to create a daytime family-oriented event out of the popular, night-time, drinking holiday, as one of the reasons for the demise of First Night Portland.
Once the event was officially discontinued, online comments came streaming into various local websites, most of which showed little regret that the event had been discontinued. ‘Apparently nothing ruins a good time for some people faster than the phrase “family-oriented”,’, wrote Shannon Bryan in a Maine Today article discussing the matter.
However, what was Portland’s lost, became Bangor’s gain. This small city, situated not too far from the Acadia National Park, began a New Year’s Eve event in 2004 that has rapidly caught on and is still expanding. It is called Downtown Countdown and for the main attraction there is a beach ball covered with Christmas Tree lights that is tossed from the top of a Main Street building to the crowd below.
The evening also features live indoor concerts, family dances and musical performances. The participatory dancing is especially popular with both contra dancing and swing dancing being available to those party-goers, who wish to be more than just sightseers. The demise of the Portland First Night Celebration seems to have boosted this public celebration in Bangor.
Another small Maine city having a lively New Year’s celebration is Belfast, a coastal town just down the road from Bangor. Their party is called New Year’s By The Bay, and this year will mark the eleventh year of operations. The Belfast happening consists of a lively mix of ice sculptures, musical performers, magicians, storytellers, street mimes, dancers and a bonfire. A fifteen dollar button will get you into all events.
However, if you are one of those people who has to see fireworks at the beginning of the year, just travel down the coast for a few miles to Camden, where a pyrotechnic display takes place over the water. Camden and its nearby neighbor, Rockland, are two very scenic Maine coastal towns that are well worth checking out in the daytime as well.
For the really unusual New Year’s Eve countdown, try venturing northward towards Canada. In the small border town of Eastport the New Year is celebrated twice. At 11 P.M. a giant Maple Leaf is lowered to honor the neighboring folks on Campobella Island, who live in Canada and are on Atlantic Standard Time, but still nonetheless are connected to the mainland through Eastport. Then at midnight the American New Year is celebrated with the lowering of a giant six-foot herring covered with lights. It is reported that over 300 people attended last year’s dual event.
And don’t worry about Portland, the nightclubs, restaurants and watering holes will be plenty busy on New Year’s Eve. In fact the Old Port, Portland’s official party spot, will be hopping and will probably not look any different from New Year’s celebrations of years gone by. Now, with the First Night Event firmly in the past, out-of-state visitors can venture to other places in the “Pine Tree State”, which deserve just as much attention as Maine’s largest city usually gets.
Sources:
http://www.mainetoday.com/iherald/061218shannon.html
http://bangornews.com/news/t/city.aspx?articleid=158193&zoneid;=176
http://www.downtownbangor.com/index.php?area=DTCountdown
http://www.boston.com/travel/blog/2007/12/new_years_eve_i.html
http://www.nybb.org/activities.html
