{"id":101439,"date":"2025-12-31T18:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T18:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/101439\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T18:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T18:26:07","slug":"families-ring-in-the-new-year-early-with-bubbles-face-paint-and-a-noon-countdown-at-friendship-fountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/101439\/","title":{"rendered":"Families ring in the New Year early with bubbles, face paint, and a noon countdown at Friendship Fountain"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Despite the cold weather, sunshine filled the Southbank and families gathered at Friendship Fountain on Wednesday to ring in the New Year a little early during Jacksonville\u2019s Noon Year\u2019s Eve celebration.<\/p>\n

The family-friendly event, running from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., offered an alternative to late-night fireworks, giving kids and parents a chance to welcome 2026 at noon instead of midnight.<\/p>\n

Music played, families danced, bubbles floated through the air, and one activity brought back a sense of nostalgia for many parents when children gathered to play with a large parachute.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest attractions was Jessica Johnson\u2019s First Coast Face Paint.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI love it, just enjoying the community and what the city has to offer. I am seeing a lot of familiar faces. It\u2019s just great, and it\u2019s fun to see the community come together,\u201d Johnson said. <\/p>\n

She added that cats and unicorns were among the most requested face-paint designs at the event. <\/p>\n

Garrett Callis, the Community Programs manager, told News4JAX reporter Briana Brownlee<\/a> and photojournalist Jesse Hanson that this inaugural event was designed to be simple, safe, and stress-free, allowing families to enjoy the holiday without staying up late or navigating nighttime crowds. <\/p>\n

The highlight of the event came at noon, when families counted down together to mark the start of 2026.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Despite the cold weather, sunshine filled the Southbank and families gathered at Friendship Fountain on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101440,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2318,6849,116,118,117,42452,3089,6987],"class_list":{"0":"post-101439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-downtown","9":"tag-friendship-fountain","10":"tag-jacksonville","11":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","12":"tag-jacksonville-news","13":"tag-new-years-eve","14":"tag-riverfront","15":"tag-southbank"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}