Pigeon Forge Parties for New Year
The Pigeon Forge area is ringing in 2007 with some great celebrations you should know about. One of the most popular area events is in Gatlinburg, where you can join the annual street party and countdown to midnight complete with a fireworks show.
You don’t have to travel to New York City to find the festive atmosphere and anticipation of the ball-drop in Times Square. Gatlinburg has its own ball drop at midnight on top of the space needle. Live music and performances will pulse through the streets of Gatlinburg to keep revelers wide awake in the midnight hour. The free party starts at 11 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. Look for the ball drop and fireworks show on top of the Space Needle just across the street from the Gatlinburg Convention Center. The fireworks should be spectacular, Pryrotecnico of New Castle, Pennsylvania, is in charge of the display. New Castle, PA is the “Fireworks Capitol of America,” so the show is in good hands.
Another popular New Year’s celebration in Gatlinburg is at Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies. It’s so popular that early reservations are necessary. It’s easy to imagine why the event is so popular; partiers have the opportunity to ring in the New Year under water-- from the safety of the acrylic tunnels through the aquarium’s reef tank, of course. A band provides live music for this interesting event, where couples can dance the evening away with sharks and other sea life swimming above in 1.4 million gallons of shimmering waters.
Another popular party takes a different twist on New Years at Ober Gatlinburg ski lodge high on Ski Mountain. This party starts at 7 p.m. and features a buffet dinner complete with prime rib, salmon and more, but leave room for dessert. Several packages are available for this event. Aside from the party, plan on ice skating on the indoor skating rink, a tour on the U.S.’s largest aerial tramway, and scenic chairlift rides. And don’t forget the skiing, 3 of 8 trails are open with new snow blown and snow in the forecast this week.
Back in Pigeon Forge, don’t forget that Dollywood is open for the last day of 2006 with the Christmas in Dollywood celebration. Enjoy a few more moments of that Christmas feeling. The park opens at 11 a.m. and closes at 9 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, so you can enjoy the shows and rides for one last time before the park closes. If you miss it you’ll have to wait until March when the park opens again.
Also in Pigeon Forge, Country Tonite Theater is having a New Year’s celebration at 10 p.m. Reserve your seats and enjoy one of the most popular country music performances in the Smokies and look forward to a ball drop at midnight. After the show, take a moment to mingle with the performers and enjoy refreshments.
So there you have a few great options. We can’t tell you which one to see, but it’s important you know that there are choices more fun that sitting at home and watching everyone in New York enjoy themselves at Times Square. Sure, if you were in New York that might be fun, but come to the Pigeon Forge area and enjoy the next best thing to the “real thing” at Times Square.
See the ball drop in Gatlinburg, enjoy the fireworks, go to Dollywood, and don’t forget the scores of romantic restaurants in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. There’s even a winery in both Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg where you can pick up a bottle of the bubbly for your own celebration. Don’t forget about your Pigeon Forge cabin rentals either, or if you prefer to be in the middle of it all, check out a Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg hotel. And on top of all this, you can still enjoy the Pigeon Forge Winterfest lights! For the next best thing, it doesn’t get much better than that.