Organizers of the New Year\u2019s Eve Times Square Ball Drop are getting in the revolutionary spirit for 2026.<\/p>\n
The Post has learned that on July 3, for the first time since the tradition began on New Year\u2019s Eve 1907, a second ball drop will be held \u2014 to mark the 250th anniversary of America\u2019s founding. <\/p>\n
A preview of the summer festivities is due to take place at around 12:04 a.m. Jan. 1, after the regularly scheduled ball drop and the traditional playing of \u201cAuld Lang Syne.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program calls for the ball to light up in red, white, and blue before 2,000 pounds of patriotic confetti are set off. Broadcast networks will screen a video to mark the occasion titled \u201cAmerica Turns 250.\u201d<\/p>\n
That will be followed by a \u201cdynamic pyro finale\u201d set to \u201cAmerica the Beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The specially designed America250 ball will drop just before midnight on July 3. Damon Haimoff, America250<\/p>\n
The second ball drop will be followed by a \u201cdynamic pyro finale.\u201d AP<\/p>\n
Times Square will have a second Ball Drop for the first time in the 120-year tradition. Robert Miller<\/p>\n
\u201cTo ring in the 4th of July, starting with the same type of festivities that you would normally see on New Year\u2019s Eve \u2014 what better way to represent this global impact that we as a country have and the responsibility that comes with that?\u201d Rosie Rios, Chair of America250, told The Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever you\u2019re imagining as a broadcast performance, it\u2019s much more than that. It\u2019s going to be huge, and it\u2019s going to be beyond anyone\u2019s expectations,\u201d Rios teased about her team\u2019s grand plans for Independence Day.<\/p>\n
America250 is the nonpartisan organization Congress tasked with planning the national commemoration and festivities to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n
There will also be a second set of festivities in Times Square to kick off the country\u2019s 250th anniversary year. Getty Images<\/p>\n
America250 has been working to engage the entire country in the vaunted anniversary. AP<\/p>\n
The group is partnering with One Times Square and the Times Square Alliance to stage the special second ball drop.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne Times Square has long been a place where the world comes together to celebrate pivotal moments\u2014from the end of World War II to the moon landing,\u201d said Michael Phillips, president of Jamestown L.P., which owns and operates One Times Square.<\/p>\n
Organizers have also developed a new \u201cConstellation Ball,\u201d featuring crystals and Morse code messages in flashing lights, that will be deployed during this year\u2019s New York\u2019s Eve ball drop. The design of the America250 ball for the July 3 drop will be unveiled just before the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31.<\/p>\n
America250 has spent years organizing national celebrations of the country\u2019s 250th anniversary. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal is to inspire all 350 million Americans to join in this moment to celebrate our country,\u201d Rios stressed to The Post.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one else has ever made that grand proclamation that we\u2019re going to engage 350 million Americans in anything. This is the way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Organizers of the New Year\u2019s Eve Times Square Ball Drop are getting in the revolutionary spirit for 2026.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7987,8078,10748,9,24,55,54,56,87,40251,901,58],"class_list":["post-81580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-america","tag-independence-day","tag-new-years-eve","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-politics","tag-square","tag-united-states","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}