What is the name of the New Year's Eve event in New York City where thousands gather to watch the Times Square Ball drop?

The New York City event where thousands gather to watch the Times Square Ball drop is New Year’s Eve in Times Square.

The celebration takes place in the Midtown Manhattan area around One Times Square. Spectators traditionally enter viewing areas during the day, wait for the midnight countdown, and watch performances, confetti, and the illuminated ball descending the flagpole. The event is organized with extensive street closures and security arrangements.

The public celebration began with The New York Times’s 1904 New Year’s festivities. Those celebrations helped popularize the name Times Square, which replaced the earlier name Longacre Square. The ball drop itself was introduced three years later, in 1907.

The event is often treated as synonymous with the ball drop, but the ball is only the best-known symbol of a much larger gathering. Television coverage has expanded its audience far beyond the people physically present in Manhattan, and the crowd size and access rules vary by year.