Tue 12/31 @ 6pm
For the first time in 15 years, Downtown Cleveland will host a special New Year’s Eve celebration thanks to a group of motivated and engaged young, local professionals – Ohio Homecoming. The inaugural event is hosted by Cleveland’s favorite son, Drew Carey.
“Landing Drew Carey to be part of Cleveland Rocks New Year’s Eve is a major win for us,” explains Ohio Homecoming Managing Partner Alonzo Mitchell. “We’ve always wanted to work with Drew because of what he’s done to shine a light on Cleveland with his success in entertainment, so this is the perfect collaboration for what we’re trying to do with this celebration.”
“Cleveland is home and I can’t imagine a better place to spend the New Year,” says Carey. “When I heard what the Ohio Homecoming Group was planning, and that they wanted me to be part of it, my response was ‘hell yeah!’ So I’m happy to layer-up and party on Public Square with my fellow Clevelanders.”
Cleveland Rocks New Year’s Eve 2013 – Electric Ice will be the first NYE celebration in Downtown Cleveland since the turn of the millennium. This free event in Public Square is being described by organizers as “festival-like.” Highlights will include a beer garden, ice sculptures, over a dozen local food trucks, fireworks, live performances and more.
Organizers are anticipating approximately 20,000 guests to ring in 2014 in Downtown Cleveland. Attendees are invited to amplify their experience by purchasing special “Glow Gloves” featuring 3 colored LED lights in the tip of each finger that can be easily controlled. These gloves will light up Public Square during the headline set by Chicago-based, electronic dance trio Krewella and Drew Carey’s countdown to midnight. (These gloves won’t last long – order online by Sun 12/22 to ensure delivery by New Year’s Eve.)
Krewella’s stage show will be enhanced by their “Volcano” – a hypnotizing, overwhelming stage set/structure that epitomizes the event’s theme “Electric Ice.” It is sure to be a spectacle unlike anything ever before in Public Square. But with a slogan like “I Am Ohio,” one must ask, why not a local group? Wouldn’t it be cool to have a NEO-based band like The Black Keys playing our NYE party? People from around the country would come to Cleveland for a chance to see them live for free on NYE. Just a thought.
Ohio Homecoming describes themselves as a “Movement” designed to raise Clevelanders’ sense of civic pride. Their other projects include the Village Project, which seeks to “discover” the next run-down, low-income part of Cleveland ready to be gentrified. The members claim that they will then move to that neighborhood to foster this change. The goal, one assumes, is to “discover” the next Tremont, Ohio City/Hingetown, Gordon Square or (more currently) Collinwood.
CLEveland Rocks NYE Party takes place Tue 12/31 on Public Square. The event will be broadcasted live on CBS 19 Action News and WUAB 43 from 10pm-12:30am.
Josh Usmani is a 27 year old local artist, curator and writer. Since 2008, his work has been featured in over 50 local and regional exhibitions.