So a few night ago the Hubs and I rang in the new year with at least 1000 of our fellow Brooklynites down at the Prospect Park NYE Celebration put on by the NYC Parks department. The event sounded like it was going to be great - live music, hot cocoa, fireworks! But it just didn't play out as advertised. Apparently they've been running a similar event down at Coney Island for the last couple years and it's a blast. If Prospect Park is going to continue I think they have a few kinks to work out.
A few things to take note of:
The website for the Brooklyn Ball event advertised the following: 'the NYE Brooklyn Ball ascend[ing] 15 feet each hour from 7pm to midnight.' And then goes on to talk about the ball itself and its materials, etc. If there was a ball in Grand Army Plaza on NYE - then we all missed it. I spent about 90 minutes in the plaza and park and I never saw anything.
The event started {apparently} at 6pm, the band was singing when we got there a little after 10:30, but the majority of people seemed to wander over after 11.
We didn't see any other vendors on site... besides the free hot chocolate from Juniors. And the line for that was c-r-a-z-y.
The band/DJ that performed was good! They sang a nice mix of oldies and goodies and had so much energy for it being such a cold night. The problem came from the metal box they were set up in - picture those dioramas we all used to make in elementary school. The sound from the speakers was bouncing all over the metal walls and roof and made it really difficult to hear the singers.
There wasn't a great flow to the event. The members of the Park Department and Borough Pres. office kept coming to the stage every other song to say "hey Brooklyn! who's excited for 2016?" It was cute the first time... but after the 5th time I really just wanted to hear the band. For the staff running the event next year - chill, guys. Just let the event flow. And please do not yell to the crowd "18 seconds!" and then start making a [political] speech about how great Brooklyn is. We know we're awesome... let us countdown to the new year and cheer for fireworks!
And my least favorite part of the night - there was no indication as to where the fireworks were actually going to go off. We thought maybe they'd be over the arch - nope! They ended up being in the park itself behind everyone. The fireworks started right after midnight and everyone in the crowd made a mad dash to the open areas to get a better view. I guess for next year we'll know better...
Happy New Year Yelpers! read more