SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — As the holiday season approaches amid the ongoing COVID pandemic, one popular local tradition will be missing for the second year in a row.
The First Night Saratoga festival will not be an option this New Year’s Eve for those looking to ring in 2022 in the Spa City.
“There’s absolutely zero way that we could do it in its old iteration,” said Louise Kerr, executive director of Saratoga Arts, which has organized the community event for many years.
While the pandemic is a major challenge for any large-scale event planning in 2021, the COVID virus isn’t the only reason that Saratoga Arts can’t run the festival this year, Kerr said, explaining that funding is a problem too.
Kerr, who started as the new Saratoga Arts leader in August of 2020, said it doesn’t make sense for the arts center to operate such a large event involving 140 volunteers and an outlay of about $100,000.
So, last year, Saratoga Arts initiated discussions with representatives from the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, the Saratoga Springs City Center, Discover Saratoga, the City of Saratoga Springs and the Saratoga Regional YMCA (which presented the inaugural First Night Saratoga in 1996) about running the program more collaboratively in the future.
Though this year’s First Night is a no-go, Kerr is optimistic that the festival will return again, in a different form.
“It’s going to be something new,” she said. “The idea is to have a really collaborative, collective event.”
Saratoga Arts and the other area organizations are planning to have more meetings in 2022 to figure out what First Night will become.
“I can’t tell you exactly what it looks like,” Kerr said, “but I do know that there is definitely the desire from everybody in town to continue having something – and everybody is really open to it being something new.”
Kerr hopes that this new format will be free and open to all, rather than a ticketed event as in the past.
“I think it could be something really new and exciting,” Kerr continued, noting that its debut could potentially take place for New Year’s Eve of 2022.
Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce president Todd Shimkus said he thinks the economic impact of the festival’s absence will be minimal this year, because Dec. 31 is on a Friday. “Saratoga will still be a great destination for a fun weekend getaway,” he said. “People are looking for special places to spend time together and to celebrate the New Year. I’m sure many of the bars and restaurants will have entertainment.”
Looking ahead, “The organizations that have run it in the past and those who have helped them continue to talk about how to bring it back in 2022,” Shimkus said. “Special events like these are important to our local economy and to making sure Saratoga remains a vibrant year-round destination.”
Saratoga Arts will continue its free monthly First Thursdays series, which was created after last year’s First Night cancellation. Next month, however, it will be held on the first Friday, Dec. 3, to coincide with the Victorian Streetwalk Weekend event in downtown Saratoga Springs. Artist Sonny Daye will perform.
The center is also bringing back its holiday market featuring local artists and crafters selling gifts on Saturdays throughout the season from noon to 4 p.m. on Nov. 27, Dec. 4, Dec. 11 and noon to 5 p.m. on Dec. 18.
More information about Saratoga Arts events is available online at www.saratoga-arts.org.
Photos by Lauren Halligan- Digital First Media,
First Night Saratoga posters are displayed at Saratoga Arts in Saratoga Springs. (File photo)
Lauren Halligan - Medianews Group FILE PHOTO
Eventgoers watch as young musician Maddy Hicks performs in the window of Lifestyles of Saratoga during First Night Saratoga on Dec. 31, 2017. (File photo)
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