Crowd warms up to NYE
Despite –27 C temperatures (with the wind chill), thousands of people attended the annual outdoor New Year’s Eve celebration in Niagara Falls.
Queen Victoria Park along the Niagara Parkway was the host site of CBC’s national Canada 150 broadcast, hosted by Rick Mercer.
The free outdoor concert kicked off at 8 p.m. with an all-Canadian lineup, including two-time country pop female vocalist of the year Jess Moskaluke, emerging country stars James Barker Band, Toronto-raised R&B artist Jessie Reyez, multi-platinum-selling Montreal-bred band Simple Plan and Juno Award-winning Vancouver-based band Marianas Trench.
There were two fireworks displays, at 9 p.m. and midnight, a variety of food and beverage options, as well as an outdoor licensed area.
The presence of security and police was to ensure everyone’s safety throughout the night.
The show was a partnership between the city, Niagara Parks Commission and several tourism stakeholders.
This year featured a return to live TV, two years after Global stopped broadcasting the show because of cost concerns.
“I hosted live TV last year, and it was on Parliament Hill, and that was a return to live TV because it had been gone for a long time,” said Mercer.
“But when I was growing up, the New Year’s Eve show always came from Niagara Falls. I remember watching April Wine play live in Niagara Falls, and I thought the drummer was going to explode, there was so much steam coming off of him in the cold. I was thrilled to come back and do it here.”
The celebration went on, despite the bitterly cold temperatures.
Other communities, such as Ottawa and Toronto, cancelled or scaled back their outdoor celebrations due to expected conditions in those areas.
“I think everyone is scaling back. No one seems to be scaling back here,” said Mercer.
“There’s places like Niagara Falls and Winnipeg and there’s places in this country that know how to do cold, and this is clearly one of them.”
The CBC broadcast visited other New Year’s Eve celebrations across the country, but Niagara Falls was centre stage.
“This kind of show has so many moving parts because there’s so many time zones, and so many bands and many different locations,” said Mercer.
“It involves a lot of math, and I went into show business to avoid math, but luckily we have a team of experts who are standing by and they seem to know where I’m going at any given point.”
Dale Hillier and his wife, April, came from Trenton to watch the Niagara Falls show.
“You dress for it: snow pants, long johns, jeans, three layers. We made sure we were warm,” said April.
Dale said visiting Niagara Falls on New Year’s Eve was on their bucket list.
“We always see it on TV, and we said it would be so neat (to go),” he said.
Moskaluke, who is from Saskatchewan, said it was her first time in Niagara Falls.
“I’m actually really bummed because our flight was delayed nine hours. We came in early on purpose because I’ve never seen Niagara Falls,” she said.
“I wish I could see more. I’m going to try and see more tomorrow (Monday). It’s beautiful. I didn’t realize how lit up everything would be.”
Moskaluke said she was “thrilled” with the crowd.
“It’s really saying something that they braved the cold, that many people. I wasn’t expecting much because it is so cold, but they really exceeded all my expectations, tenfold, they were fantastic.”
She said she has performed on New Year’s Eve in past years, but never outside.
“It was tricky. It’s hard to breathe, but it was really fun, and you quickly forget just how difficult of a climate we live in.”
Moskaluke said she doesn’t know if she has a new year’s resolution for 2018.
“I’m getting married in the summer, so I don’t know if I have a new year’s resolution, so far as just a lot of stuff to do. I kind of travel for a living, so I’m really looking forward to just being right at home. We’re getting married in my yard, and trying to keep it as small as we can.”
When reminded Niagara Falls is considered the Honeymoon Capital, Moskaluke smiled and said: “I never even thought of that. I think you might” (see her back in Niagara Falls).
Niagara Parks Commission chairwoman Janice Thomson said police on scene estimated a crowd of between 12,000 and 15,000 people.
“It kept changing over, nobody stayed out there the entire time, so that would mean that there were more people, but that would have been the crowd size at its peak,” she said.
Thomson said she was impressed with the turnout, given the frigid temperatures.
She said the two Wego buses stationed along the parkway as a place for visitors to warm up during the event was a hit.
“They were filled with between 80 to 90 people at all times between 8 and 12:30. People really appreciated having that as a respite area.”
Thomson said she believes it was a “terrific celebration” with fans well-equipped to handle the cold conditions.
“I was also impressed with the number of people who were across the road at the brink of the falls looking over at the lights, and looking at the ice formations and the sort of wintry beauty that’s there right now.”
Serge Felicetti, the city’s director of business development, said having live TV return was “great for the destination.”
“You promote Niagara as the place to be New Year’s Eve, so it’s wonderful to have that type of exposure back in Niagara Falls,” he said.
Felicetti said despite it being “one of the coldest” New Year’s Eve celebrations “we’ve ever experienced,” people still wanted to “come out and have a good time.”
Mayor Jim Diodati said he “loved” seeing the city centre stage for the country on New Year’s Eve.
“The big benefit for us, tourist wise, is that people right now across Canada are going to watch Niagara Falls, start the discussion and say, ‘Hey, we need to plan a trip to Niagara Falls,’” he said.
“The benefit will come later in 2018 when they all get here.”
Diodati said despite the cancellation of events in other communities, he believes it was a good decision for Niagara Falls to go “full steam ahead.”
“I come out here every year, and everybody is dressed for the occasion. They don’t seem upset. They’re all appreciative of the event, appreciative of the entertainment.”
He said the plan is for live TV to be back in Niagara Falls for the long haul.
“If we’re able to confirm the (four per cent hotel tax), we’ve got a provision in there for a yearly, national broadcast television show here every year, so if that gets approved, this is going to be a yearly, predictable event.” rspiteri@postmedia.com