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Rochester's New Year's Eve activities won't include fireworks

Spectrum News

The City of Rochester is planning to hold a number of activities on New Year’s Eve but fireworks will not be one of them.

The city’s Special Events Manager, Kara Osipovitch says part of the reason is budgetary, but also the number of people who stayed downtown just to watch the fireworks at 10pm wasn’t all that large, especially in years when the weather was bitter cold.

“The city has seen dwindling numbers, attendance numbers the past few years with New Year’s Eve fireworks; it’s in stark contrast to the 20,000 people we get downtown on the 4th of July so it was part of a budget decision to cut costs in that area. We’ll still continue to have the indoor, free family-fun at the Convention Center from 6 to 9 this year and we expect numbers to stay strong inside,” Osipovitch told WXXI News.

Osipovitch says the cost of the fireworks, when you include police overtime was about $30,000.

So instead, she says that money is being re-invested in other activities, such as the ROC Holiday Village that was held on several weekends this year.

Osipovitch says the fireworks on New Year's Eve has been somewhat inconsistent;  She says it wasn't a longstanding tradition, but it was revived several years ago.  The city will continue to hold fireworks downtown on July 4th.

The activities on New Year's Eve will include various activities for kids and adults at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center from 6 to 9pm, as well as free ice skating at Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Memorial park from 5 to 9:30pm on December 31st. There is also free parking at several downtown garages on New Year's Eve from 6 to 11pm.

You can get more information about the City of Rochester's events here.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.