Flagstaff, Arizona celebrates New Year like the rest of the world, but in their own unique fashion. Many people are familiar with the crystal ball dropping in NYC each year to commemorate the changing of the year, but Flagstaff has chosen to replace the crystal ball with a pinecone. A large gold painted pinecone that is suspended from roof top of the Historic Weatherford Hotel in downtown is dropped just like the NYC celebration. This is no ordinary pinecone being, made of tin and standing at over six feet tall, it weighs over 70 pounds. Sharing another parallel with NYC, this downtown area is called Times Square.
Throughout the evening, live music plays throughout the evening while waiting for the new year to come. The pinecone drops twice throughout the evening, once at 10 PM to celebrate the east coast new years and again at midnight in Flagstaff for their new years countdown. Starting in 1999, this annual celebration is gaining more notoriety for their alternative celebration method.
The original idea of the pinecone was conceived in a business meeting from the hotel owners in 1999. The first pinecone was made out of an old garbage can and a rigging system that was just as shoddy. In any case, the pinecone worked and stopped where it was supposed to. Since then, the pinecone has been dropped every year since. The event grows in popularity every year with the Times Square area being closed off and a block party thousands of people thick rings in the new year.
