Presque Isle will welcome the new year with luminaries, fireworks and concerts in a family-friendly, community-wide bash.
The Star City Celebration will start at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 31, and continue through the official midnight start of 2026.
It will be the city’s second New Year’s Eve shindig in a row, following a dry spell that lasted more than a decade. A year ago, city officials and other groups threw an 8-hour event that drew revelers until midnight, when a star was lit that still shines over Main Street.
People were so enthusiastic about another celebration this year that the Northeastland Hotel is fully booked, said Collin Darrell, operations manager for Ignite Presque Isle, the nonprofit that runs the Main Street hotel.
“That’s the first time that’s happened since we’ve remodeled, since Ignite PI took over,” Darrell said. “I think it’s a great indicator of some of the revitalization happening downtown. People are excited and they’re coming back this year.”
While a concert last year was held on Main Street, this year there will be three concerts at two different venues, he said.
Local band French Toast will play at the hotel lounge from 7 p.m. to midnight. Meanwhile, at the Sargent Family Community Center, Aerosmith tribute band Draw the Line and local rock band Busted will headline a concert and party, also from 7 p.m. to midnight. The concerts require tickets.
And just before midnight, a gathering will assemble in front of the hotel for the raising of the star to mark the start of 2026, Darrell said.
The real goal is to make Presque Isle the New Year’s Eve destination in Aroostook County, he said.
Events will kick off at 4 p.m. with the second annual Wonderland of Wishes at Riverside Park, hosted by the Aroostook Agency on Aging.
“We wanted to expand it to make it more family friendly and to include more of the downtown,” the agency’s Ginny Joles said.
The organization partnered with the Presque Isle Revitalization Committee, the University of Maine at Presque Isle, the Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library and local business sponsors to plan activities for kids, a luminary candle path and a fireworks show.
Kids can enjoy a story walk along the Mary’s Mile path featuring an original story written by agency staff. As they walk and read from the gazebo toward the skating rink, they can write new year messages or wishes on paper mittens and hang them on a kid-size tree, Joles said.
Under the gazebo will be music, a free photo booth and stations where people can learn about volunteering and the Memory Care Center, the agency’s dementia support facility that opened in June 2024.
Through the center, people can obtain dementia assessment, education, family and caregiver support and links to care with Bangor neuropsychiatrist Dr. Clifford Singer.
“It’s one of a kind in the nation and we need to tell people how important it is that it’s here in Aroostook County,” Joles said. “We need to make sure that that program is sustainable and here for all of Aroostook County.”
To raise funds for the center, volunteers will sell concessions at the snack shack in the skating building as well as the luminary candles that will be placed in a path around the park. People can attach “wishes” of their choice to their candles — thoughts for the new year or even memorials to loved ones, Joles said.
Later, the messages from the mittens and luminaries will be assembled on a wall in the agency’s adult day care, next to the memory center, she said.
Activities will pause at around 5:30 p.m. in preparation for a fireworks show that will start at 6 p.m.
As Wonderland of Wishes winds down at 7 p.m., the doors will open at the Sargent Family Community Center for the concerts, organized by Spud Speedway of Caribou, and at the Northeastland’s restaurant, Rodney’s at 436 Maine, and the downstairs lounge.
To purchase luminaries, visit the Agency on Aging’s Facebook page or call 207-764-3396. For concert ticket information, visit the Northeastland Hotel or Spud Speedway on Facebook or at their websites: thenortheastlandhotel.com or spudspeedway.com.
Darrell thinks people are excited to see Presque Isle creating New Year’s Eve festivities, holding on to some old traditions but forming new ones for residents to celebrate. Organizers want to keep growing the celebration, he said.
“When the town’s alive that like that, that’s a different feeling,” he said. “And that’s really what makes it so special — when you can feel the energy and everyone celebrating, and not just celebrating how it used to be but how it is today.”