After a nine-year hiatus, Pine Avenue will welcome back its annual New Year celebration by closing the downtown street for live music, restaurant specials and fireworks in an event meant to recreate the atmosphere at Times Square.
With sponsorship from the OC Weekly, Convention Visitors Bureau (CVB), the Port of Long Beach, Downtown Long Beach Associates (DLBA) and others, along with partnerships from all restaurants and nightclubs along Pine Avenue, the event will draw plenty of attention downtown.
“It will be a great night,” said Steve Goodling, CVB President. “Were excited to be a partner in this NYE event, bring people back downtown as they use to come before.”
Goodling directs all praise towards John Morris, owner of Smooth’s Sports Bar & Grille, for putting the event together. Morris engineered the celebration in the nineties and felt the time was right to bring it back.
“It’s an event that was hugely successful for ten years,” says Morris. “There have been problems bringing people downtown, but people will always come for events. In today’s economic climate, they’ll come out for events rather than dinner.”
This particular event, however, won’t cost penny-pinchers a dime. Though restaurants will offer special dinner packages that need to be reserved in advance for admission, the event on Pine itself is free to the public. A stage will be erected near the Broadway intersection for live music. Pine will be closed from 1st Street to Broadway, though both of those streets will remain open.
More information can be found by visiting flipswitchon.com.
“It’s what the community wants,” Morris says.
By Ryan ZumMallen, Managing Editor
Disclosure: Smooth’s Sports Bar & Grille is an advertiser with the lbpost.com.