The biggest, heavily fortified New Year's Eve party on the planet went off without a hitch last night in Times Square, as an estimated two million people gathered in the heart of Manhattan to say good fucking riddance to 2016.
The ball-dropping tradition dates back to 1907, and the Waterford crystal orb once again made its 60-second, 141-foot journey to mark the exact second 2017 arrived here in New York City, to much rejoicing. This year, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and his wife Ban Soon-taek joined Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray for the New Year's ball button-pushing honors:
All of the expected, more contemporary elements of the celebration were in place as well: performances by the likes of Mariah Carey (more about her later), DNCE, and Gloria Estefan; heavily-branded hats and balloons handed out to the masses; a brief blizzard of confetti; barricaded pens inside of barricaded pens; and a massive, 7,000-officer-strong presence from the NYPD.
And if the whole thing felt somewhat more subdued than usual, well... maybe everyone's still a little shell-shocked from the past year. So here's to 2017!
