The three-day New Year’s EVE celebration will welcome 2012 on Dec. 29, Dec. 30 and Dec. 31, city and arts leaders announced Wednesday morning.
This year’s event will include more indoor activities to combat possible cold temperatures, plus a new mascot, stEVE, and a Temple of Boom structure inspired by Nevada’s Burning Man event, said Jeffrey Berke, whose company Corporate Staging Resources plans much of the entertainment for the festival sponsored by the Downtown Alliance.
The new attractions are designed to draw Utahns to the festival, which will take place on West Temple between 100 South and 200 South and the Calvin Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center during the lead-up to New Year’s Eve.
“Salt Lake City is the winter destination capital,” Berke said at a news conference held at the newly renamed Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (formerly the Salt Lake Art Center). “But it has never had a festival.”
EVE is in its third year, following 16 years of First Night celebrations. Organizers learned valuable lessons in previous years that will be instituted this year, said Jason Mathis, Downtown Alliance executive director. For example, tickets will be $12 in advance, and $15 at the door, allowing patrons access to all three nights’ worth of entertainment. Last year, the price was $10 per day.
Beyond indoor activities, EVE will feature attractions aimed to appeal to the area’s large population of university students, Mathis said.
Replacing last year’s snowboarding exhibitions on West Temple, the Temple of Boom is an electronic music installation with a 40-foot Mayan Temple with fire that shoots 30 foot into the air, Berke said. Nationally-touring electronic musicians such as Russ Liquid, Gladkill, Sugarpill and EOTO will spin music around a stage surrounding the structure. The Mayan Temple may or may not be an allusion to Mayan calculations that the world is due to end in December 2012.
The Salt Palace will feature concerts by local bands such as King Niko, The Anser (seen on “The X-Factor”) and The Terks, as well as a Reggae Snowsplash featuring reggae bands and the Ballroom, with DJs spinning as audiences trip the light fantastic among 2,012 beach balls ranging. A returning attraction for kids is Bouncetown, a collection of about two dozen inflatable playgrounds.
Other EVE activities will be held at venues including Broadway Centre Cinemas, the Off Broadway Theatre, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, the Clark Planetarium and Temple Square.
“We are psyched,” said David Everitt, chief of staff for Mayor Ralph Becker. “We look forward to another big party.”
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