The annual Times Square New Year’s Eve ball-drop celebration will be back at “full strength” for people vaccinated against COVID-19, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.
“We are proud to announce the wonderful celebration in Times Square, the ball drop, everything, is coming back full strength,” he said during a virtual press briefing. “It’s going to be amazing.”
Proof of vaccination and a valid photo ID will be required for those over 5 years old to attend the celebration, while others will need to mask up and provide a negative test, according to Tom Harris of the Times Square Alliance.
“Our goal is to have a safe event for our cast, our crew and for the crowds,” Harris said, noting that full details on the celebration will be released in the coming weeks.
The expected announcement of a more full-fledged celebration come after this past year’s mostly virtual new year celebration was the first annual event since 1907 without upwards of a million in-person spectators who revel at Manhattan’s Crossroads of the World. Just a few hundred people came to Times Square.
The neighborhood during the final day of 2020 turned into a ghost town as officials closed off the area where the ball drops.
Though Jennifer Lopez and a star-studded lineup performed during the ceremony, a small crowd attended the toned-down celebration to ring in 2021.
“It’s so surreal to watch New Year’s Rockin Eve and see Times Square empty,” one Twitter user wrote.
In New York City, 74.6% of all residents have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine — including 87.5% percent of adults. Eighty percent of adults in the five boroughs are now fully inoculated against the virus.
Additional reporting by Nolan Hicks