Bucket List: New Year’s Eve in Times Square

Ryan Seacrest hosts TV broadcast for New Year's Eve from Times Square

By LOIS WEISS

There is nothing like being in Times Square for New Year’s Eve when tons of colored confetti rains down and the speakers blare Auld Lang Syne and then Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York.

Thousands of people arrive early in the morning – many wear diapers because no porta pottys are supplied – and are then crammed into giant barricaded pens below the Red Staircase at West 47^th Street that run south to West 44^th Street.  

Despite what it looks like on TV when the crowds are jammed at the sides, the police do not fill these pens to overflowing so there is plenty of space for folks to sit or lie down while they await the magic moment.

Little Big Town waves to the crowd below

 The entertainers perform on stages that are maybe 15 to 20 feet high, and therefore, impossible to see from the pens below. In another fail, most of the giant screens around Times Square do not show what is on the stage or on TV and continue showing their paid advertisements. There is one big screen set up by the Times Square Alliance at 42^nd Street but it is very hard to see from further uptown. Sometimes other screens show the entertainers but it is not something to count on, so many folks just watch on their phones.  

Little Big Town performs on high stage for the sponsor's guests

There is also no pen from 42^nd to 43^rd Streets which is occupied by the Ball Drop Building at One Times Square and the NYPD. The area from West 43^rd to 44^th Streets is also not open to the general public but is instead, reserved for guests of the Alliance, the city and the evening’s sponsors who take over the Hard Rock Café.

Inside the Hard Rock Cafe on New Year's Eve

The city also shuts down all the cross streets starting at Eighth Avenue going east, and from Sixth Avenue going west. And the NYPD also sets up barricades on the north side of West 48^th Street at both Seventh avenue and Broadway and at 42^nd Street so the area is completely self-contained with walking areas for the NYPD, press and others with passes to walk around.

Barricades ensure there are areas for first responders and entertainers to safely walk through the area

On very cold and rainy days, the crowds are thinner but still excited to be at an event that is broadcast around the world. To avoid frostbite, the NYPD warns to dress warmly and in layers. It's also good to bring snacks and water because no food is available in the pens, as well as warm shoes plus packets of hand and foot warmers.

Some folks even bring blankets to help pass the time. As it gets later in the evening, staffers give out funny hats, glasses, balloons and other items for the crowd to wave at the cameras.  

And once it is over, the NYC Sanitation crews quickly come in with brooms and blowers and chase both the confetti and the crowds away.

Reveler in Times Square on New Year's Eve wears Planet Fitness top hat swag.

Wind blew the confetti away from One Times Square where fireworks were set off for America 250