Visit Pensacola invites visitors to experience Florida Twist on New Year’s Eve Tradition at Pelican Drop
Pensacola, Fla. (PRWEB) December 22, 2015 -- A lot of things have been dropped on New Year’s Eve. New York City has the acclaimed Times Square ball. Plymouth, Wisconsin, has a giant wedge of cheese. Brasstown, North Carolina, has a caged, live opossum, and Atlanta drops an 800-pound peach. Not to be outdone, Pensacola has devised its own take on this bizarre holiday tradition — dropping a 14-foot, lighted bird.
The Pensacola Pelican Drop is the area’s biggest New Year’s event, drawing 50,000 people to historic downtown Pensacola for a street party featuring live music, fireworks and family fun. The free festivities, centered on Palafox Street, will begin at 3 p.m. on New Year's Eve and continue until 12:30 a.m.
Children’s activities, carnival-style games and two stages of live music will keep crowds entertained throughout the night, and an assortment of food trucks — in addition to downtown’s normal lineup of stellar restaurants — will keep them fed.
A new addition to this year’s event is the Law Office of JJ Talbott's Little Pelican Party — a family-friendly lineup of events including festival games, live entertainment and a city-wide blessing delivered by Influence Pensacola.
The party will kick off at 3 p.m. and culminate with the lighting of the Pelican at 8. The mini-finale, complete with stomping of bubble wrap and a pyrotechnic display, will provide a fun, festive end to the evening for those whose bedtimes might prevent them from seeing the big fireworks show at midnight. For those without a bedtime, however, the party will just be getting started.
Headlining act the Chee Weez, a high-energy cover band from New Orleans, will perform on the Levin-Rinke Main Stage beginning at 10 p.m. They will be joined by five up-and-coming country acts who will perform throughout the evening.
Because this year’s festivities coincide with the college football playoffs, Downtown Pensacola is also inviting fans to watch the game from two “TV gardens” specially constructed for the occasion, off Palafox.
All the evening’s festivities will lead up to one grand, fireworks-filled finale — when Pensacola’s iconic Pelican descends from its perch 110 feet above the intersection of Palafox and Garden streets.
The bird, designed by local artist Michael Dicks, boasts a 20-foot wingspan and is plumaged with more than 2,000 hand-cut, metal feathers and 2,500 lights. Its flight will be heralded by a fireworks display over Downtown Pensacola, welcoming the city into its 457th year.
More than 50,000 people are expected at this year’s event. To help with parking, the Winterfest organization will provide free trolley service between Palafox and the paid lots at the Pensacola Bay Center. To see a map of all available parking, along with a full schedule of New Year’s performances and events, visit http://www.pensacolapelicandrop.com.
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About Visit Pensacola
Visit Pensacola leads the effort of economic development through tourism in Escambia County. Comprised of over 150 member businesses, Visit Pensacola’s mission is to position the Pensacola Bay Area as a premier year-round travel destination through tourism marketing, communications, meetings and conventions, reunions and group tour initiatives. For more information about Visit Pensacola, call 1-800-874-1234 (toll-free) or go to http://www.VisitPensacola.com.
Caron Sjoberg, Ideaworks, http://www.visitpensacola.com, +1 8504349095, [email protected]
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