First Night Binghamton in Review

I was invited by my friends, Eric and Sarah, to go to First Night Binghamton. First Night is a family-friendly (aka alcohol-free) New Year’s Eve event celebrating the arts and cultural diversity. Binghamton is one of over 100 communities around the world that ring in the New Year in this style.

None of us had ever been to First Night before, but we thought it sounded like a cool way to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Browsing through the official program, the sheer volume of options to choose from was overwhelming. But choose we did.

First on our itinerary was Basin Street Dixieland Jazz Band. We really enjoyed listening to this New Orleans style band. Their energy was infectious—especially that of their rubboard/harmonica player.

Next up was Bronzissimo!, a handbell choir from Central UMC in Endicott. The acoustics in the sanctuary of St. Patrick’s Church really added to this top-notch bell choir.

We then caught a horse-drawn carriage ride over to Marilyn’s Bake Shoppe, but 400 people had beaten us there earlier in the night and there were no cupcakes left to decorate. Fortunately, we were treated to cookies and conversation by Marilyn herself. The bakery opened a little over a year ago and has had pretty good success so far. After tasting one of the delectable cookies, I understand why!

Our itinerary then took us across the street to see the neon light sculptures (done by Alfred University students, professors, and alumni) and then down the street to the Broome County Public Library. It was fascinating to watch the volunteers from the Southern Tier Chinese Culture Association translate our names into Chinese and create calligraphy bookmarks. Finding a safe place to put the bookmarks proved to be a little perplexing, but as Eric said, “It’s a bookmark. Put it in a book to flatten it.”

We had then hoped to catch a stand-up comedian at City Hall, but the line was a little long and after a few minutes we decided to head elsewhere. Elsewhere ended up being Temple Concord. Upon arrival, we decided that the group we went to hear didn’t really appeal to any of us, so we called it a night and proceeded to head to our friends’, Mike and Mandi’s, for the countdown.

Overall, we enjoyed First Night. Even though we didn’t see a lot of people while we were outside, most of the venues seemed to be pretty busy. Knowing more about the various performers further in advance would have been more helpful in creating an itinerary, but I think we did pretty good with our selections. It was also nice to visit some new places and discover some new music groups. I’d say it was a good start to a New Year!