When students leave town for Winter break, they will miss out on one of the biggest parties in Evanston. The town will celebrate its thirteenth First Night Evanston on Dec. 31.
First Night Evanston is the largest New Year’s performing arts celebration in Illinois. It is a part of First Night International, an organization that started in Boston in 1976 to celebrate the bicentennial. First Night has since spread across the United States and even overseas.
In Evanston, this family-oriented celebration will offer various entertainment forms.
Musicians will play blues, jazz and classical music. Other performers include mind readers and magicians. And Forest Park-based Nadeau’s Ice Sculpture will transform ice blocks into works of art. The events will take place at 18 different venues donated by Evanston businesses.
First Night Evanston will offer families the opportunity to spend time together, Festival Manager Corinne Pierog said.
“I see it as a place where families can enjoy the New Year with each other and the arts,” she said. “It is sharing the beauty of each other with the beauty of the arts.”
Donna Stuckert, Evanston’s community information director, agreed that First Night Evanston is great for the whole family.
“It provides an alternative where families can go instead of a New Year’s Party where there might be alcohol,” Stuckert said.
One of First Night Evanston’s larger productions will be the Chicago area premiere of “The Journey of Sir Douglas Fir,” a musical based on a book written by author and actor Ric Reitz. The play will be presented at First United Methodist Church of Evanston, 1630 Hinman Ave.
The musical is based on a “true story” of a fir tree that feels sad and does not want to be a fir tree, said Kate Ulett, director of the play and of the Children’s Choir of the Music Institute of Chicago. Although the tree’s friends try to help it, the fir tree is cut down. In the end, the fir tree becomes the tallest flagpole in Canada.
Ulett said the story is appropriate for New Year’s Eve because it is about overcoming adversity and finding one’s place in life.
“It has many applications to people of all ages and is rooted in wisdom,” Ulett said.
The musical will bring the book to life as actors narrate and perform exaggeratedly, she said. An orchestra, the Children’s Choir of the Music Institute of Chicago, Opera Moda and Piven Theater Group will collaborate, and the musicians will be onstage along with the musicians, she said.
First Night Evanston will be $14 for adults, $8 for children aged 6-12 and free for children 5 or younger. The festivities start at 6 p.m. and there will be fireworks at midnight. After midnight, there will be dancing events until 1:30 a.m.
Reach Ketul Patel at [email protected].
