Boston's alcohol-free New Year's Eve celebration is called First Night.
First Night Boston began on December 31, 1976, as a citywide arts celebration designed to welcome the new year without centering the event on alcohol. Its program included performances and visual arts presented in public venues around Boston and nearby Cambridge.
The concept was created by Boston cultural organizers, including Clara W. Wainwright, and inspired later First Night events in communities across the United States. Participating cities adopted the name and the basic idea of an arts-focused New Year's Eve, but each organization operated independently.
Boston's event has changed format over the decades because of funding, attendance, and public-health conditions. The phrase First Night can therefore refer either to the original Boston celebration or to the wider family of community arts events using that name. It is not simply another name for Boston's midnight fireworks.