FIRST NIGHT
BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH CELEBRATORY EVENTS.
First Night Tacoma-Pierce County connects families and people of all ages by celebrating the Arts, illuminating our community’s rich diversity, inspiring people to create and perform their own art, and reveling in the excitement of the New Year.
To recapture the symbolic significance of the passage from the old year to the new; to unite the community through a shared cultural celebration; to deepen and broaden the publics appreciation of the visual and performing arts; to help bring vitality to the urban core of a community joining in New Year’s Eve revelry.
FIRST NIGHT IS ABOUT COMMUNITY, CELEBRATION, THE NEW YEAR, AND ART.
First Night provides a strong vehicle to recreate the sense of community most of our cities have lost, and offers the potential of strengthening communal ties and of uniting people. It helps people rediscover their city, learn about diverse cultures and get acquainted with old traditions. First Night is an occasion to celebrate ourselves, to reflect upon our cultural diversity and the beauty of our city. At First Night, the arts take front and center stage in the life of the city. In preparation of the event, artists involve members of the community in innovative projects and pageantry, as well as create works that invite public participation and interaction during the festival.
CELEBRATION
First Night is a Celebration. It is a fun, participatory, event that brings people together, through the arts, in a shared celebration of the New Year. It is a celebration that marks a special moment in time, but it is also a celebration of community, the arts, spirit, creativity, diversity and shared dreams and goals. And First Night is a celebration of the city itself. The city can get all dressed up and local artists transform the traditional urban landscape into their canvas. First Night’s stage is the city center, where members of the suburban and urban communities come together in festivity. The events location, in the heart of the city, offers a safe, festive route that is transformed into a spectacle of light, sound and compelling imagery.
THE NEW YEAR
First Night is a celebration of the New Year. It marks the passage of time from the old year to the new each December 31st. It derives its strength from the human capacity to make new beginnings. New beginnings bring hope. First Night sets in motion our hopes for the future both individually and collectively as a community. As a time-specific festival, First Night incorporates rituals and thematic elements unique and appropriate to this passage. At the stroke of midnight, our spirits soar high as we welcome the New Year with family and friends. We return home with a renewed sense of communal pride and feelings of appreciation, participation and discovery. Remembering our uncommon experience, we look forward to this annual ritual.
THE ARTS
First Night is an invention of artists and it is their trust in the power of the arts to bring about communal harmony that distinguishes this particular celebration from other civic events. The arts play an important role in First Night because of their capacity to transform, to inspire, to enrich and to engage. They transcend boundaries of race, age, gender and social status. First Night provides a platform for musicians, poets, storytellers, dancers, actors, puppeteers and visual and media artists to showcase the city’s cultural landscape. This is the time to bring the rich variety of arts to all the people in the community.