First Night Boston 2012

View and meet the crews of some of the boats in Boston Harbor’s Working Port, including the Boston Harbor Pilots' boat and a Coast Guard vessel. 

 

 Reflections of the four seasons, an exhibit and interactive tour of texture, light and an embrace of nature’s gifts. Don Chapelle of Brilliant Ice Sculpture creates a piece with walls that have seasonal items frozen into the ice. Weather permitting, patrons will be able to walk through the sculpture. (If it’s not cold enough, and there is melting, this won’t be possible!)

 

Eric was inspired by the MFA’s new acquisition Lime Green Icicle Tower by glass artist Dale Chihuly. The Museum was able to purchase this magical piece for all to enjoy thanks to the generosity of enthusiastic members of the public, who gave gifts large and small. Bring your family to the MFA to see the 42-foot original. The spectacular sculpture is made of 2,342 pieces of glass, weighs 10,000 pounds—and never melts! Sponsored by the Museum of Fine Arts.

Let JetBlue Getaways transport you to the sunny beaches of Puerto Rico. Master ice carver Steve Rose pays tribute to the island of Puerto Rico, in ice. Sponsored by JetBlue and the Puerto Rico Tourism Company.

 

The Highland Street Foundation celebrates the 10th anniversary of the beloved TADpole Playground with some First Night Frogs, in ice.

 

A celebration of the end of the Mayan calendar, but certainly not the end of the world, with an Aztec pyramid and a calendar stone. It will be accompanied by a 56-minute music loop, called “The Longcount,” by ice carving team member Tom Fahey.

 

The Grand Procession has been the heart of the First Night celebration since the beginning in 1976. Over the Horizon, First Night’s 36th anniversary Grand Procession, will be led by different pieces from the Back Alley Puppet Theatre and Puppeteers Cooperative, whose founders have participated in all 36 First Nights in Boston.

The Procession starts in front of the Hynes Convention Center at 5:30, moves down Boylston Street, turns left at Charles Street and ends at Beacon. St.

Participants include:

Boston City Band
Caribbean Bandleaders
Codman Academy
Common Art
Curley K-8 Elementary School
The Cycling Murrays
Dinoman!

Fay Chandler
Franklin Field
Franklin Hill Dorchester “Healthy Boston”
Geometric Progression
The Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association
Grooversity
Hawthorne Youth and Community Center
Hurley K-8 Elementary School
The Hot Tamales
Joseph P. Manning Elementary School
Middlesex County 4–H Fife and Drum Corps
Nazarro Community Center
New Liberty Jazz Band
New Magnolia Jazz Band
Old Town Trolley Tours
OPENAIR Circus
Panorama Magazine
Peg Preble/Gould Microcars
Roberto Clemente 21 Dancers
The Puppeteer’s Cooperative and the Back Alley Puppet Theatre
Renaissance Charter School
Samba Tremeterra
Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Brass Band
Simply Circus
Spontaneous Celebrations
Thomas J. Kenny School Marching Band
Tony Barrie Marching Band
WFNX, WGBH 89.7, WUMB, The River 92.5 FM

The Puppeteers' Cooperative is a group of artists and puppeteers working in cities around the nation to create giant puppet parades, pageants, and ceremonies of celebration and complaint, using simple materials and movements to build community cardboard extravaganzas. We have worked with groups around the US and Canada, from Nova Scotia in the North to Florida in the South, and with festivals including the Atlanta Arts Festival and the Bumbershoot Festival of Seattle, creating semi-instantaneous pageants, art installations, and parades. Our massive pageants at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival in New York have explored neurosis and traffic jams in "Romeo and Juliet in New York City", space and parrots in "The Tempest on Mars", the highway system from Troy to Ithaca in "The Odyssey" fear of Da Mayor in "Metropopolis", and city as circus in "Grand Meg-o-lopolis Circus". Our 'Triumph of the Arts" parades with the Governor's Institute on the Arts of Vermont have become a beloved tradition. Puppeteers from the Puppeteers' Cooperative have worked with First Night of Boston and First Night International and with First Night celebrations around the country since their inception, creating both experimental commissioned parade works and sections, and sprited and colorful community group parade pieces.

 

The Puppeteers' Cooperative is also involved with a number of interrelated groups: Hi-Art videos, which makes videos of giant puppet pageants and miniature tabletop productions; News of the Week, for mini street shows; the Back Alley Puppet Theater, which creates parades and parade puppets in the Boston area; the Puppet Free Library, which lends puppets, banners, and masks to people and institutions in the Boston area; and the Construction Section, puppet makers.

Boston Common Frog Pond celebrates the New Year with a sparkly show of ice skating stars! Spins, jumps, lifts, and fancy footwork from our exciting pairs and dance couples! Skating at its finest from our synchronized skating teams! Our young students show off what they are learning in their weekly lessons! And champion local and national figure skaters will delight and entertain you! The event runs from 6-7 PM and is followed by FREE open skating from 7-8 PM.

Born of Jamaica Plain's burgeoning young music scene, Chris North Dream
Quartet follows the call of the sun, reaching for cosmically sentimental
sounds. What results is drifting haze of 12-string guitar, reverb-drenched
telecaster, upright bass, and drum sounds. Gorgeous pop hooks drop in as
leader Chris North takes the band through sweeping vocal harmonies. Since
their start in January 2011, they have gained a cult following in the
Boston's underground art and psychedelic folk scene and look forward to
taking their sound to the city's heart on the last night of the year.

Main Fader is the solo project of Boston based multimedia artist Daniel C. Kenney. He makes fringe-electronic music influenced by all types of dance music, hip-hop, and meditative drone work - combining it all into something he calls Bliss-Hop. His method of creation is heavily concentrated in sampling, but draws mostly from his own recorded works of the past and present. He also creates video work to be projected during his live performances. The work utilizes the technique of video feedback among other recorded physical interactions with light and substances. He is currently working on a debut full-length album titled Zonked Out.
http://mainfaderrsvp.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az7bLQlPje0

Enjoy free tours of the Mother Church, as well as a chiming concert on Christian Science Plaza at 2 and 9 p.m

 

According to Boston Band Crush, Vanzetti combine jazz, grunge and psychedelia to create a sort of post-apocalyptic folk sound; coming across as if they’d be just as at ease playing the Thunderdome.

 

Join WBZ-TV Anchors Lisa Hughes and Jack Williams as we welcome in the New Year in historic Copley Square. Televised live on WBZ-TV. Across the street, Boston’s hottest DJ’s anchor a multimedia celebration on the steps of the Boston Public Library. Join DJ Die Young, Baltimoroder and Coralcola, Stereo Telescope and the Boston Hoop Troop for this two-hour countdown extravaganza with dancers, images projected on the beautiful library façade and a spectacular light show.

Sail into 2012 with Amos Blood’s shipwrecked ghetto cajun devil folk rock!

 

The skies above Boston Harbor transform into a brilliant tapestry of light, color and sound at midnight to celebrate the New Year. Zambelli Fireworks creates this spectacular display for First Night 2012.