New Year's Eve in the Queen City is alive and well. That was the message from Signal Kitchen cofounder Alex Lalli back in September when his Burlington-based creative agency and Burlington City Arts announced plans to team up on Highlight, a New Year's Eve celebration intended to replace the defunct First Night Burlington. At a press conference at the BCA Center last week, the two organizations unveiled more details about the citywide festival. "It's magical and revealing itself everyday," said BCA executive director Doreen Kraft of the new fest. She added that Highlight is building on the legacy of the city's First Night, which is believed to have been the longest-running nonprofit New Year's Eve celebration in the country. "Our mission was to honor First Night's 35 years, but to reimagine it," agreed Lalli. Like First Night, Highlight will feature a wide array of music and arts events at locations around Burlington. Where the new festival diverges is that it takes advantage of venues all over the city, not just downtown. For instance, in the New North End, revelers can skate at Leddy Park's Gordon H. Paquette Ice Arena. Free shuttles will ferry attendees all over town, including to the South End Arts District, where grown-up carousers can get into the holiday spirit at the Creative Cocktail Project, a collaborative event at the Soda Plant hosted by Shacksbury, Brio Coffeeworks, Tomgirl Juice, and Alice & the Magician. Between Burlington's north and south ends, Highlight sandwiches an ambitious slate of events. Musical headliners include folk songwriter Anaïs Mitchell at the First Unitarian Universalist Society and local Latin jazz master Ray Vega jamming with Burlington cumbia band Mal Maïz at the FlynnSpace. Local country crooner Brett Hughes curates a night of Green Mountain honky-tonk and bluegrass at the Soda Plant, featuring players from all over the state. Lalli also teased a big headlining announcement to come in early December. While Lalli and BCA's event and production manager, Zach Williamson, curated much of the programming, Highlight draws heavy inspiration from community suggestions. Earlier this year, Highlight organizers put out a call to artists soliciting ideas for events. Among the accepted proposals is the Illuminated Waterfront at the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain. Conceived by Burlington's Illumination Collective, the immersive interactive display "dazzles the senses" by employing video projection mapping, ambient illumination and other lighting techniques. Another community-curated event is Hour 99…
New Year's Eve in the Queen City is alive and well. That was the message from Signal Kitchen cofounder Alex Lalli back in September when his Burlington-based creative agency and Burlington City Arts announced plans to team up on Highlight, a New Year's Eve celebration intended to replace the defunct First Night Burlington. At a press conference at the BCA Center last week, the two organizations unveiled more details about the citywide festival. "It's magical and revealing itself everyday," said BCA executive director Doreen Kraft of the new fest. She added that Highlight is building on the legacy of the city's First Night, which is believed to have been the longest-running nonprofit New Year's Eve celebration in the country. "Our mission was to honor First Night's 35 years, but to reimagine it," agreed Lalli. Like First Night, Highlight will feature a wide array of music and arts events at locations around Burlington. Where the new festival diverges is that it takes advantage of venues all over the city, not just downtown. For instance, in the New North End, revelers can skate at Leddy Park's Gordon H. Paquette Ice Arena. Free shuttles will ferry attendees all over town, including to the South End Arts District, where grown-up carousers can get into the holiday spirit at the Creative Cocktail Project, a collaborative event at the Soda Plant hosted by Shacksbury, Brio Coffeeworks, Tomgirl Juice, and Alice & the Magician. Between Burlington's north and south ends, Highlight sandwiches an ambitious slate of events. Musical headliners include folk songwriter Anaïs Mitchell at the First Unitarian Universalist Society and local Latin jazz master Ray Vega jamming with Burlington cumbia band Mal Maïz at the FlynnSpace. Local country crooner Brett Hughes curates a night of Green Mountain honky-tonk and bluegrass at the Soda Plant, featuring players from all over the state. Lalli also teased a big headlining announcement to come in early December. While Lalli and BCA's event and production manager, Zach Williamson, curated much of the programming, Highlight draws heavy inspiration from community suggestions. Earlier this year, Highlight organizers put out a call to artists soliciting ideas for events. Among the accepted proposals is the Illuminated Waterfront at the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain. Conceived by Burlington's Illumination Collective, the immersive interactive display "dazzles the senses" by employing video projection mapping, ambient illumination and other lighting techniques. Another community-curated event is Hour 99…