New Year’s Eve revelers welcomed 2024 by dropping a large beach ball covered in string lights off a downtown Bangor roof, this time in a new location a few hundred feet from where the tradition began.
This year the glittering ball fell from the roof of 6 Central St. at the corner of Hammond and Central streets, which houses Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness. Bangor City Council Chairperson Cara Pelletier and Lisa Sockabasin, Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness Executive Director, dropped the ball.
Bayle Ross of Cherryfield and Kaleigh Quinn of Southwest Harbor, both 18, came to Bangor on Sunday night to see the New Year’s ball drop for the first time — a tradition they described as “weird and original, but fun.”
“It’s a nice way for the community to come together and do something fun,” Ross said.
As they stood along Main Street waiting for the event, they agreed it felt a little strange for the ball to come off the roof of 16 Central St. rather than Paddy Murphy’s, but they said the new location will give spectators more room to spread out.
Around the corner, Meghan York, 31, and Alex Maker, 23, both of Bangor, waited to see the ball drop for the fifth year in a row.
Both York and Maker were interested to see how the new location worked, but said they don’t believe the change alters the spirit of the tradition.
“As long as the street gets blocked off and traffic stops, I don’t see any issue with it being there,” York said. “It’s cool — a little different and a little quirky, just like Bangor.”
Local lawyer Steven Smith created the tradition in 2004 when he taped Christmas lights to a beach ball and dropped it off the roof of 26 Main St., which his wife owned at the time.
John Dobbs then took over the tradition in 2009 when he purchased the building after opening Paddy Murphy’s in 2007.
Each year after that, Bangorians gather downtown to see the large beach ball wrapped in string lights get hurled off the roof at the corner of Main and Broad Streets ring in a new year. Over the tradition’s 20-year history, the crowd of spectators has grown from a few hundred to more than 4,000.
Each year, the annual ball drop caps off the Downtown Bangor Partnership’s Downtown Countdown celebration on New Year’s Eve, which usually includes live music, children’s events, theater, comedy and other entertainment.