Although rain is forecast tonight for Times Square, where New York City’s globally celebrated New Year’s Eve ball drop annually takes place, the program should be terrific, and history also will be made.
The 7-foot-tall illuminated “2025” numbers are currently displayed in Broadway Plaza, between 46th and 47th Streets in Times Square. Visitors can view them up close and capture memorable photos for holiday cards or social media. The numbers will later be moved to One Times Square and illuminated during the New Year’s Eve iconic ball drop to welcome 2025. (Photo by: Deb Cohn-Orbach/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
At 6 p.m. ET, the celebration will begin atop One Times Square -–the building at the intersection of 42nd Street, Seventh Avenue and Broadway in the heart of Times Square— where the ball will be lit and raised, accompanied by special pyrotechnic effects.
Performers featured on ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” will include Rita Ora, the Jonas Brothers, Megan Moroney, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, TLC and Carrie Underwood, while CNN’s “New Year’s Eve Live” will feature Mickey Guyton and Underwood, and Univision’s “Feliz 2025!” will feature Greeicy, De La Ghetto and Kapo.
At 11:10 p.m. ET, New York City will host a 400th birthday celebration—it was first settled by French Huguenots transported there by the Dutch West India Company in 1624—while Guyton will perform her version of John Lennon’s song, “Imagine,” at 11:55 p.m. ET.
At 11:59 p.m. ET, New York City Mayor Eric Adams will push the crystal button that signals the descent of the New Year’s Eve ball, leading the final 60-second countdown to New Year 2025 on One Times Square’s countdown stage.
At the stroke of midnight, the lights on the New Year’s Eve ball will be turned off, while the numerals of 2025 will be illuminated high above Times Square. Simultaneously, 3,000 pounds of confetti—including thousands of wishes from relevelers around the world hoping for peace, love, good health and a better future—will be released from building rooftops throughout Times Square.
Tonight will be the last night the legendary, current New Year’s Eve ball will drop: It will go on display next year in a museum in the newly restored One Times Square.
This 26-story building opened in 1904 as the headquarters of the newspaper, The New York Times; the New Year’s Eve ball drop ceremony has taken place here since 1907.
In 2022, Jamestown, the global real estate firm that owns and manages One Times Square, launched a $500 million redevelopment of the building to turn in into a 21st century visitor center. This redevelopment will open much of the building’s interior to the public for the first time in decades.
Michael Phillips, a principal, chairman and president of Jamestown, said in an interview with Forbes.com this week that the building will offer immersive experiences for visitors to enjoy; a museum displaying the current New Year’s Eve ball plus two earlier ones; a viewing deck; function and VIP rooms; and a wedding chapel, which he said will be Times Square’s equivalent of City Hall, New York’s marriage bureau in lower Manhattan that conducts in-person, civil wedding ceremonies.
He said the building’s new features will begin to open next August and continue to do so progressively through the end of 2025.
Jamestown earlier this month launched Times Square Island, a new Fortnite island based on One Times Square’s annual New Year’s Eve celebration, bringing the ball drop celebration to Fortnite’s over 650 million players worldwide.
