Graphic Courtesy of Michael Goldberg
First Night is back! After a two-year hiatus, the New Year’s Eve celebration will be returning to South Orange and Maplewood, offering family-oriented festivities that do not focus on alcohol.
MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE — Go ahead and flip to the back of the calendar right now to mark off Dec. 31, because First Night in Maplewood and South Orange will be back after a two-year hiatus.
The New Year’s Eve celebration will run from 5 to 10 p.m. at Columbia High School to bid farewell to 2014 and welcome 2015. The joint South Orange-Maplewood party offers family-oriented, alcohol-free activities for adults and children.
The First Night program began in Boston in 1976 as a cap to the nation’s bicentennial. According to a recent press release, the event’s goal is to broaden public appreciation of the visual and performing arts while offering an alternative to the traditional New Year’s Eve celebrations that typically focus on drinking alcohol.
While there are now several hundred First Night celebrations throughout the United States and Canada, South Orange-Maplewood is the only community in Essex County to participate.
“I am thrilled to help bring First Night back to our community,” Michael Goldberg, president of the First Night board, said in the release. “The prior board laid a solid foundation upon which we could re-establish the event. I am so excited to have so many new volunteers who want to bring the event back and take it to the next level.”
According to Goldberg, the first SOMA First Night was held approximately 20 years ago in the 1990s and the community’s last First Night was held Dec. 31, 2011.
“First Night was done for nearly 20 years in the community by a great group of volunteers,” Goldberg told the News-Record this week via email. “However, after so much time, the prior board became ‘tired’ from the enormous amount of work that is required and decided to call it quits.”
Despite the “enormous amount of work,” Goldberg and other community members were determined to bring First Night back.
The First Night board for 2014 comprises Goldberg, Vice President Ileana Castillo, Treasurer Sandi Goodman, Secretary Karen Marlowe, Maplewood liaison Jerry Ryan, South Orange liaisons Sheena Collum and Stephen Schnall, Amy Goldberg, Chick Bisberg, Chris Stetson, Francesca Mangione, Karen Harris, Kathy Greenstone, Laurellie Martinez, Mary Hayes, Maya Martinez, Melissa Harder, Sandra Dick, Scott Greenstone and Tom McGee.
“We are pretty well split between Maplewood and South Orange,” Goldberg said of his fellow board members.
According to Goldberg, the most difficult part of bringing back First Night has been recruiting volunteers, without whom First Night would not be possible.
“The biggest challenge is always attracting and retaining dedicated volunteers,” Goldberg said. “However, we have a great core group of people that are planning the event and with the great response we received from the community, I am confident we will be able to obtain many more people to help us make this the best year ever.”
Headlining the event this year will be, according to the release, “the Jersey Shore’s greatest rock and roll party band,” The Nerds. While rocking out, the Nerds bring a sense of the silly to everything they do and have been delighting audiences for approximately 25 years.
The Nerds will be joined by a wide variety of entertainers and artists who will be performing throughout the evening.
“We are still in the process of finalizing contracts with other performers, but we expect other musical entertainers, magicians, circus performers, dancers, etc. to be announced soon,” Goldberg said. “We are also planning to have a DJ for the teen audience, and local businesses holding workshops for adults with things like yoga, martial arts, acting, etc.”
All of the performances and activities are costly and First Night is being sponsored by BCB Community Bank and Atlantic Health/Overlook Medical Center, as well as the South Orange Village, the Township of Maplewood, the South Orange-Maplewood School District and the South Orange Performing Arts Center.
“We have been able to attract incredibly generous donors — BCB Bank and Atlantic Health — as well as the Village of South Orange and Maplewood, which allows us to have a larger budget than past years and plan for so many entertainment acts this year,” Goldberg said.
While First Night is definitely returning this year, there is still work to be done and the First Night board is actively looking for volunteers and sponsors.
“I am thrilled by the response we have received since we have announced our return and ask anyone and everyone who is interested in helping to contact us at www.firstnightmwso.org,” Goldberg said.
“I hope that everyone in the community will mark their calendars now and save the date for the great night we are planning.”