{"id":86034,"date":"2025-12-31T22:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T22:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/86034\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T22:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T22:48:07","slug":"iconic-times-square-ball-will-drop-twice-in-2026-to-honor-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/86034\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic Times Square Ball Will Drop Twice In 2026 To Honor America"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The iconic New Year&#8217;s Eve celebration in Times Square will feature an unprecedented twist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/new-years-ball-will-drop-twice-2026-rcna251697\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">as the ball drops twice in 2026<\/a>. Traditionally, the Constellation Ball descends from the One Times Square building to mark the start of a new year. That will happen as normal this year, but at 12:04 a.m. EST, the ball will be relit. <\/p>\n<p>Four minutes after the the ball hits the bottom to bring in the new year, it will be relit featuring a red, white, and blue design. During this moment, 2,000 pounds of red, white, and blue confetti will shower the crowd, accompanied by a pyro finale set to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/artist\/ray-charles-1504\/\" data-catalog-kind=\"ARTIST\" data-catalog-id=\"1504\" data-catalog-related-id=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ray Charles<\/a>&#8216; rendition of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iheart.com\/artist\/ray-charles-1504\/songs\/america-the-beautiful-163886639\/\" data-catalog-kind=\"TRACK\" data-catalog-id=\"163886639\" data-catalog-related-id=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">America the Beautiful<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This additional event celebrates the upcoming 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The Times Square Alliance and America250, a nonpartisan body established by Congress, are organizing the event. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmerica250 will kick off the Semiquincentennial year on New Year\u2019s Eve in Times Square \u2014 the most watched celebration on the planet \u2014 signaling that the largest and most inspiring celebration and commemoration in our nation\u2019s history is underway in 2026,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/america250.org\/news\/america250-announces-celebration-of-america-turning-250-on-new-years-eve-in-times-square\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">said <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/america250.org\/news\/america250-announces-celebration-of-america-turning-250-on-new-years-eve-in-times-square\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Rosie Rios<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/america250.org\/news\/america250-announces-celebration-of-america-turning-250-on-new-years-eve-in-times-square\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">, Chair of America250<\/a>. \u201cOur goal is to inspire all 350 million Americans to join in this moment to celebrate our country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The celebration will not end there. The decorated Times Square Ball will drop again on July 3, 2026, marking the eve of the nation&#8217;s birthday. This will be the first time the ball drops outside of New Year&#8217;s Eve.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7ny.com\/post\/new-years-eve-nycs-times-square-everything-know-ball-drop-how-watch-more\/18330767\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Constellation Ball, the largest ever<\/a>, measures 12.5 feet across and weighs 12,350 pounds. It features 5,280 Waterford crystals and LED lighting, nearly doubling the number of crystals from previous years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The iconic New Year&#8217;s Eve celebration in Times Square will feature an unprecedented twist as the ball drops&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[11082,75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-86034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manhattan","8":"tag-ai-assisted","9":"tag-manhattan","10":"tag-manhattan-headlines","11":"tag-manhattan-news","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-nyc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86034","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=86034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}