More than 7,000 people braved the cold and rang in 2002 at the First Night Evanston celebration, which featured live performances at 22 downtown locations.
Reggae music pumped from an outdoor stage that operated throughout the night. The stage events included a bicycle obstacle course and a hula hoop contest. At midnight, the crowds formed a conga line through the streets of the downtown area.
At 5:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, patrons were beginning to turn up at First Night Plaza, set up at Bank One, 1603 Orrington Ave. For $12 for adults and $6 for children, patrons received admission to all 50 performances, which ranged from ComedySportz to West Indian folk dance to brass quintets.
Dave Herzog and his marionettes kicked off the evening with “Stars on Strings,” a Northwestern-sponsored show at the Evanston Public Library. Herzog’s one-man show not only entertained a room full of toddlers, but also had their parents standing on tip-toes to catch glimpses of clowns, roller-skating mice and even a Ricky Martin marionette belting out “Livin’ La Vida Loca.”
“Someone might get a hug from a puppet or a kiss from a puppet or a puppet might even dance on your head,” Herzog told the large group of children, who had crawled up to the stage to get a better view.
By the end of the show a crowd had gathered outside and people had begun to fill the streets to celebrate the new year.
First Night spokeswoman Lisa Laske said that more people attended this year’s party than previous years’ and noted a particular increase in the amount of people who joined in the midnight celebration.
“I think people really enjoyed themselves with the diversity we had,” she said.
Some acts, like Herzog’s marionettes, returned from last year. But the celebration also added several new performers to its ranks, including the New Invaders, a band that performs covers of songs by British bands such as the Beatles, she said.
Laske said planning for the event started nearly a year ago and is directed by a 30-member board. An additional 350 volunteers were required on New Year’s Eve.
That was more than enough volunteers, according to Lois Roe Wade of Lois’s Event Makers, an outside company hired to help organize the event.
“Things went really smoothly,” she said.
