It’s been five years since the rebirth of Tacoma’s First Night, the family friendly arts-based New Year’s Eve celebration downtown – and it’s on a roll. There are more stages, more giant puppets and more fire events than ever.
This year being (almost) the Asian Year of the Dragon, the event naturally centers around these mythical creatures and the fire they breathe out, very useful on a cold winter’s night. This year’s First Night is also cheaper – at least with tickets bought in advance – and emphasizes community participation.
“We’ve got all kinds of crazy things,” says co-director Lance Kagey. “I’m pretty excited about it.”
First Night is a nationwide community phenomenon that happens in cities big and small. Arts-based, it offers an alcohol-free alternative to New Year’s Eve partying, with much of it at family friendly times and locations. Tacoma’s celebrations ceased for a few years last decade, but since 2007 the volunteer-run nonprofit has been steadily growing in scope and solidity, attracting thousands of festival-goers to downtown Tacoma.
As in previous years, the night begins officially with what Kagey calls the “World’s Shortest Parade” – it runs just half a block down Broadway from the graffiti garages to the Pantages Theater at South Ninth Street. Though short, the parade is still a lot of fun, led by marching bands, dancing divas, the Roller Derby Dames and giant puppets. Two years ago, following the animals of the Asian New Year, there was a long white tiger lit from within; last year there was an enormous rabbit as well. This year it’s the dragon, with not one but two enormous beasts, one of them literally breathing fire.
“It’s aluminum, 14 feet long and puts out about six inches of flame through its nose,” says Rusty Oliver, owner of All-Metal Arts and Hazardfactory, and the maker of the fire-breathing dragon. Weighing just 40 pounds, the puppet is designed to be supported by just two people, and while the head moves up and down and the jaws snap, it’s meant to be playful. The fire is fueled by a propane cylinder.
“I can do more than (six inches,)” says Oliver, “but that’s usually the limit for the Fire Department.”
The other dragon doesn’t spout fire but tells a tale of around 300 Tacomans who spent playful hours creating it. Headed up by Metro Parks and artist Allison Morse, it was made by Eastside kids in the after-school Sparx program, families at Portland Avenue Community Center workshops and even a Girl Scout troop. Around 35 feet long, it has a cardboard head painted in bright primary colors, and a segmented body coated with “scales” of shiny, glitter-decorated fabric.
“It was always my intention to use it at First Night,” says Metro Parks arts coordinator Mary Tuttle, who came up with the dragon idea. “I wanted more of a process than just a product, though. I thought, wouldn’t it be great if we had children from the community who were invested in making it, then come back on the night to parade it.”
So after overseeing the creation of the dragon, Tuttle then asked to have it exhibited in a Broadway empty storefront as part of the city’s Spaceworks program. This week she’s organized teams from the communities who made the puppet to come and practice carrying it around for the First Night parade.
The dragon will make regular tours of the city streets out of the Club SOTA building (see sidebar for details), involving anyone who wants to participate.
Also along draconian lines are dragon print art in the Pantages lobby, the C.L.A.W. cartoonists’ team offering dragon caricature portraits in the Brooks Dental space and free dragonish temporary tattoos.
The other big element this year is fire. Popular last year were the Zen fire gardens (sand pits you can draw in to reveal gently-burning fire underneath) and a burning effigy filled with wishes and resolutions. Fire is something First Night directors are stoking up this year to help cheer the festivities along.
“The weather can be a big factor in whether people show up,” explains Kagey. “Fire helps mitigate that. It’s something warm that people can gather around. We have fun with fire, in a safe and sane way, of course.”
As well as more sand-fire pits and another burning effigy, there’ll be numerous fire performers around the streets, and an enormous fire-based art performance by Ed Kroupa called Dragon’s Eggs: around 200 balloon-like orbs filled with glowing neon launched from the roof onto Broadway’s theater square. “They have zero buoyancy, so they won’t fall, they’ll just float,” Kagey says. “They’re very ethereal and beautiful.”
As well as the outdoor parade, puppets and fire, First Night has more music stages than ever, many of them indoors (you need to buy a button). This year sees 17 stages, many curated by local musicians and artists. Angela Jossy is running the Broadway Plaza stage, which sees popular bands Roman Holiday and The Whole Bolivian Army. Aaron Spiro hosts the indie rock stage inside the former Moroccan Treasures storefront, including Portland band Drew Grow and the Pastor’s Wives. Other local bands include Pearl Django, Rumbeggae, VamoLa and kiddie favorite Rodney Raccoon. Singer-songwriters are to be found at Tully’s Coffee, the Fab-5 crew is hosting DJs, hip hop and live art at the graffiti garages, and Metro Parks showcases dance students, along with some join-in sessions of drumming and dance, in the SOTA theater. There’s a bluegrass stage, a variety stage, a sing-along stage and a live band rock karaoke.
And don’t forget that the First Night button will get you into the Tacoma Art Museum, Museum of Glass and Washington State History Museum for free all day long.
So much, and yet the advance ticket price is $2 cheaper than last year’s, with kids getting in free – and all this despite the former lead sponsor moving their money to the new downtown ice rink. New sponsors include the Cheney Foundation and Columbia Bank, with the City of Tacoma as title sponsor.
“We’re doing really well ... building a sustainable event,” Kagey says. “We’ve been setting aside money for a slush fund in case there’s a blizzard or something, and we have a good mix of Tacoma’s businesses on board.”
And as long as there isn’t a blizzard Saturday night, First Night looks to be just as good as ever, despite the cold.
“We know there are two crowds at First Night: the early family crowd and the later crowd that stay till the end,” explains Kagey. “We try to do something for everyone.”
Rosemary Ponnekanti: 253-597-8568, rosemary.ponnekanti@thenewstribune.com, blog.thenewstribune.com/arts
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