Wednesday night, Tacoma’s resurgent First Night celebration will ring in the New Year with popular bands, acrobats, performing pigs, fire dancers and at least one cargo container-sized jack-in-the-box.

Tacoma’s popular, alcohol-free New Year’s Eve celebration returned last year, after $50,000 in debt and the loss of anticipated grant money led to the event being canceled for 2005 and 2006.

“Last year we’d been dark for years,” First Night board chairman Steph Farber said. “We just did not know what was going to happen last year. People had made new plans. We were just out of mind altogether.”

Still, about 10,000 revelers showed up, he said, a testament to the South Sound’s appetite for such family-friendly, community-building events.

“It’s the community that has come out to experience a communal event,” Farber said. “And they do it in the healthiest way I can think of: Celebrating the performing arts; celebrating local musicians and jugglers and artists of all kinds. And nobody’s getting blotto like traditional New Year’s parties go.”

Among the most intriguing attractions at this year’s event will be Hi Jack, a public art project spearheaded by Tacoma artist Lynn Di Nino.

Some will remember Di Nino as the architect behind the ill-fated head-rolling project at First Night 2004, where busts of Tacoma movers and shakers were to be rolled down South Ninth Street. Problem was they weren’t very round and just kind of sat there – at least, until revelers started throwing them.

This time, Di Nino’s Hi Jack project will involve a freight container being set up on Broadway, somewhere between Seventh and Ninth streets. And starting at 8:30 p.m., First Night revelers will be invited to create musical instruments using recycled plastic vessels, tin cans, sticks and gravel that the artist and her team will provide.

At 10 p.m., Hi Jack’s finale will entail dancers, costumed actors, a giant jack-in-the-box puppet springing from the freight container, and 2009-themed “mystery objects” being launched into the crowd.

Farber provided a clue: “It also involves a large number of toasters,” he said, laughing. (Did we mention that Di Nino wants everyone to bring a homemade or recycled instrument and bread?)

Another attraction to First Night 2009 will be First Night fireworks that start on cue, Farber said, unable to resist a good-natured jab at the rival Seattle Center celebration. Last year, the countdown at the Space Needle ended in anti-climactic silence thanks to a computer glitch that delayed the fireworks.

“The one thing we do guarantee, in a sort of snarky way, is that unlike some people to the north our fireworks do go off at midnight,” Farber joked.

Touché! Here are some more attractions at this year’s festival, with a complete schedule available at www.firstnighttacoma.org.

Grand Procession (7 to 7:20 p.m., Broadway): This year’s parade will showcase street performers and musicians that will also entertain the crowd between scheduled acts. Street perfomers include the Titanium Sporkestra marching band, fire dancers of Pyro Sutra, acrobats from School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts Performers, and bagpipes by Tacoma Scots.

Rialto Theater

6 to 6:45 p.m. and 7:30 to 8:15 p.m.: Valentine’s Performing Pigs.

8:30 to 9:15 p.m.: Steve the Pretty Good.

9:30 to 10:15 p.m.: Mudd Bay Jugglers.

10:30 to 11:15 p.m.: Aria Dance Company.

Pantages Theater

6 to 6:45 p.m.: VamoLa.

7:30 to 8:15 p.m.: Alice Stuart.

8:30 to 9:15 p.m.: Maya Soleil Traditions.

9:30 to 10:15 p.m.: Te Fare O Tamatoa.

10:30 to 11:15 p.m.: Global Heat.

Pythian Temple

6 to 6:45 p.m.: Scott Cossu.

7:30 to 8:15 p.m.: Angela Jossy.

8:30 to 9:15 p.m.: Del Rey.

9:30 to 10:15 p.m.: Over the Water Hurdy Gurdy Association.

10:30 to 11:30 p.m.: Uncle Bonsai.

Pierce Transit Main Stage

6 to 6:45 p.m.: Deborah Page.

7:30 to 8:15 p.m.: Zazou.

8:30 to 9:15 p.m.: The Smilin’ Scandinavians.

9:30 to 10:15 p.m.: The Rumba Kings.

10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.: Alex Duncan.

11:50 p.m. to midnight: Countdown to midnight with KING 5 weather guy Rich Marriott.

Sanford & Son: Upper Stage

6 to 6:45 p.m.: John Purkey.

7:30 to 8:15 p.m.: Meredith Connie.

8:30 to 9:15 p.m.: The Little Brothers.

9:30 to 10:15 p.m.: Shakespeare in the Parking Lot Theatre Company.

10:30 to 11:15 p.m., upper stage: Folksingers in Hell.

Sanford & Son:

Downstairs Stage

6 to 6:45 p.m.: Twilight Drive.

7:30 to 8:15 p.m.: Voxxy Vallejo.

8:30 to 9:15 p.m.: Snake Suspenderz.

10:30 to 11:15 p.m.: The Tune Stranglers.

Club SOTA

6:30 to 6:45 p.m.: Mary Mabry Dance Performance.

7:30 to 8:15 p.m.: School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts.

8:30 to 9:15 p.m.: DASH.

9:30 to 10:15 p.m.: Geoff Kanick.

Theatre on the Square

6 to 6:15 p.m.: Cute Band Alert.

6:30 to 7 p.m.: The Gypsies.

7:30 to 8 p.m.: Dreams Jaded.

8:15 to 8:45 p.m.: CFA.

9 to 9:45 p.m.: Motopony.

10 to 10:45 p.m.: The Painkillers.

11 to 11:45 p.m.: Girl Trouble.

What: First Night Tacoma

When: 6 p.m. to midnight Wednesday

Where: Rialto Theater, Pantages Theater, Pythian Temple, Theatre on the Square, Sanford & Son, Club SOTA and other downtown venues

Admission: Buttons are $8, which get you into all performances; available at LeRoy Jewelers, Glenna’s Clothing, Sanford & Son and the Broadway Center box office. The button price goes up to $10 on Wednesday; Tacoma Art Museum and the Museum of Glass will have buttons available for purchase on Wednesday.

Information: Find a full schedule at www.firstnighttacoma.org.