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City Beat: How has New Year’s Eve evolved locally?

The ice skating rink at night is lit by strands of LED lights and colored spots on the corners at Chattanooga Green. The ice skating rink at night is lit by strands of LED lights and colored spots on the corners at Chattanooga Green.

By Barry Courter December 29, 2016 3 min read

A couple of people asked or commented over the weekend that they thought the level of New Year’s Eve events had diminished over the years here in town. They were referring both to the number and “bigness” of the events.

I told them I disagreed, but I kind of understood where they were coming from. I think the perception comes from the idea that we don’t have a signature citywide event like we used to have with events like the New Year’s Eve Block Party, which was presented by Chattanooga Downtown Partnership, or the New Year’s Eve party at the DoubleTree a couple of years ago.

Barry Courter

Plus, a decade or so ago, promoters brought in big-name touring acts for a combination concert NYE party. Those seemed to go away as they were expensive to produce and DUI awareness made people leery of being out on “amateur night” back then.

But it seems to me we’ve settled into a pretty good pattern with New Year’s Eve events in the last several years.

Right there at the forefront of the changes over the years have been The Beaters, one of the city’s premiere party bands. They began partnering with the Chattanooga Choo Choo years ago and fans can go there, party, get a meal and safely stay the night in a hotel room.

They’ll be there at the Choo Choo on Saturday, but that’s hardly the only event at the complex that night. The Velcro Pygmies are at Revelry Room, Juicy J is at Track 29 and The Swinger David Scott is the featured comic at The Comedy Catch. Plus, Ice on the Landing will have extended hours for anyone who wants to ice-skate the new year in.

The Communicators will be at Clyde’s On Main doing ’90s music, and if you really want to dress up, the Hunter Museum is hosting a fancy party. Most of the bars, restaurants and social halls that have any kind of regular entertainment are also hosting New Year’s Eve events that will include champagne toasts and party favors.

Point is, there are plenty of options, and it would seem people have figured out what patrons want. It was nice to have the citywide events, and maybe they’ll return. It’d be great to see the buildings lit up again around the holidays as well, but part of the point of those types of events was to bring people to downtown so they would discover and patronize the businesses there, which you could argue is what has happened.

Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.