Boston hosts the annual New Year's Eve celebration known as First Night Boston.
First Night Boston is an arts-centered New Year's Eve festival in Boston, Massachusetts. It has featured public performances, music, dance, visual arts, ice sculpture, and a midnight fireworks display, making it broader than a single countdown stage.
The event began on December 31, 1975, and was created as a community alternative to conventional commercial New Year's celebrations. Its success helped inspire similar First Night events in other American cities, although those local festivals developed independently and have not all continued.
First Night Boston is distinct from Boston's Fourth of July festivities, including the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular. The word “First Night” refers to welcoming the first night of the new year, not to a separate calendar holiday or a particular venue.