It may only be the middle of November, but it's not too early to start planning New Year’s Eve celebrations.
The city of Tempe announced Monday that tickets for its Circle K New Year’s Eve Block Party on Mill Avenue are now on sale.
The block party event will be a massive celebration that will see the closure of Mill Avenue from Fourth to Seventh streets in the heart of downtown Tempe on Dec. 31.
City spokeswoman Kris Baxter-Ging said this year’s event will include local bands, champagne and beer gardens, interactive games and the largest dance club in town.
“We are going to have two huge dance floors in the middle of the intersection at Fifth and Mill and Sixth and Mill,” she said.
The city is expecting about 30,000 people to attend the event, which runs from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.
The annual event is back after a year's hiatus. Contractual issues with the previous sponsor, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, prevented the event from coming together in time, Baxter-Ging said.
Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell said in a statement that this year's party is a revamped version of the annual event, which has taken place each New Year's Eve since the mid-1980s.
“This is the ‘New New Year’s Eve,’ with new bands, new kinds of fun and a fresh take on a Tempe tradition,” he said.
New attractions at the event include New Year's resolution screens and photo displays, Baxter-Ging said.
“They’re going to have large screens, where you’re going to be able to text your New Year’s resolution,” she said.
Attendees can also Instagram photos of themselves and friends this year with the hashtag #TempeNYE, and they might get to see themselves up on the big screens, Baxter-Ging said.
It wouldn’t be New Year’s without fireworks, so there will also be two separate displays will launch from "A" Mountain, one at 9 p.m. and another at midnight.
With many people congregating to the downtown Tempe area, Valley Metro will be providing extra services to help ensure people travel to and from the celebration safely.
Valley Metro Communications Manager Susan Tierney said the transportation company expects 27,000 people to ride the light rail across the Valley.
It will be adding train cars to accommodate more riders during the peak hours of the Tempe block party.
Tierney said Valley Metro has also partnered with Coors Brewing Company to provide free service on the entire metro system on New Year’s Eve.
“So that would be all of light rail, all of our buses that operate that evening and all our Dial-A-Rides,” Tierney said.
Tierney said the free rides will be available from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Baxter-Ging said tickets to the general public began going on sale Monday at Circle K stores and are $20 until Dec. 2. After Dec. 2, tickets will jump to $25 and will be available all the way up until Dec. 29.
Tempe residents may want to hold off until Dec. 2 though, because Baxter-Ging said for there will be special pricing for them from Dec. 2 to Dec. 24.
“Tempe residents, people who actually live in this community and show their citizenship … can get a ticket for $10 at many of our multi-cultural centers and our Tempe Transportation Center,” Baxter-Ging said.
Those include locations such as the North Tempe Multi-Generational Center and the Tempe Parks and Recreation offices at Tempe Public Library.
Reach the reporter at mark.remillard@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @markjremillard
