First Night Celebration

First Night Maplewood/South Orange, the New Year’s Eve celebration, opens at 5 p.m. with clowns, jugglers, and performing mutts. Yes, you read that right. The circus is back. This year, new performers—some who worked at Big Apple—put on a new one ring circus at Maplewood Middle School in Maplewood, NJ.

Because of the circus’ popularity, there will be two shows—one at 5 p.m. and one at 6:15 p.m. at Maplewood Middle School. The circus is designed for people of all ages.

Also returning are Doug the Amazing Balloon Sculptor, face painting, a karate demonstration, beadmaking, and Mary Kao’s origami workshop. The doors at Maplewood Middle School, 7 Burnett Street in Maplewood, open at 4:30 p.m.

A wonderful menu of food from La Vera will be on sale during the early portion of the evening. 

Fireworks kickoff at Memorial Park in Maplewood at 7:15 p.m. (which is across from the middle school), and then everyone returns to Maplewood Middle School auditorium to listen to the legendary folk artist Livingston Taylor at 8 p.m.

Admission to the event is $10 per ticket. Children ages 3 and younger are free. You can purchase your tickets at Kings in Maplewood, the main branch of the Maplewood Library, South Orange Library, and Cold Stone Creamery in South Orange. Tickets can also be purchased on line through PayPal at FirstNightMWSO.org. Please note there is an additional $1 charge for each PayPal ticket.

$10 covers admission for the entire event. If you wish to purchase reserved seats for Livingston Taylor (these are upfront rows in the Maplewood Middle School auditorium), each ticket is $20 or $21 through PayPal.

And for last minute guests, you can purchase a wristband at the door for $15 or $25 for limited preferred seats at the door if they are still available.

For more information, visit FirstNightmwso.org.

First Night Maplewood/South Orange is made possible in part by funds from the NJ State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.