Ocean City’s always-anticipated First Night celebration offers an abundance of entertainment options at an affordable rate
This year's First Night T-shirt will feature replicas of all Ocean City First Night admission buttons issued from its inception in 1993 to date. Photo by Don Kravitz.
If you waited until the last minute to do your Christmas shopping and got burned, don’t make the same mistake twice when kicking off the second decade of the 21st Century. With over 60 varied entertainment options available for a mere $14 fee, Ocean City’s popular New Year’s Eve entertainment celebration called First Night has sold out for the past three years, so get your admission buttons while they’re still available. The festivities will start 4pm Thursday, Dec. 31, and will be capped by a fireworks display after midnight.
First Night buttons are available from 10am-5pm at Downtown Gillian’s, 838-B Asbury Ave., in Ocean City. You can call 525-9300 to order by phone from 9am-4:30pm, or click here to order online. First Night also has an Angel Fund for those who cannot afford buttons. Along with the plethora of entertainment, a buffet dinner prepared by the Ocean City Restaurant Association will be available at the O.C. High School Cafeteria, 6th and Atlantic Ave., with seatings from 4-9pm Thursday, and can be ordered when purchasing admission buttons. The cost for the buffet is $20 for adults and $8 for children.
Attendees can also purchase T-shirts that will feature replicas of all admission buttons issued from First Night’s 1993 inception to the present (see photo). T-shirts are $20 and will be on sale on the O.C. Boardwalk in front of the Music Pier on New Year’s Day during First Day, which will take place in O.C.’s downtown section on Friday, Jan. 1. First Day festivities include a sales spectacular in the Asbury Avenue Shopping District, and the Ocean City Fine Arts League will have a drawing for an original Wanda Kline painting valued at $500. No purchase is necessary to win the painting, and the drawing will take place 4pm Friday. For more information call 814-0308.
First Day will also include a 5K run on the O.C. Boardwalk starting 1pm at the Music Pier, and an Ocean Plunge at 2pm. The plunge is free, and all who enter will be awarded a “Beach Nut” certificate. Participants are asked to bring a bag containing non-perishable items for the Ocean City Food Cupboard. For more information on the 5K, call race director Mike Givens at 861-0674.
If you have not heard about TFIA, there's a good chance your children know some of their songs.
Auld acquaintance of 2011 may best be forgot for many — and how better to clear the cache and ring in a fresh slate of calendar dates than by partying like there’s no tomorrow? In Atlantic City the choices on New Year’s Eve are nearly endless.
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