SCRANTON, Pa. — For more than 60 years, the start of the holiday season in the Scranton area has been marked by the lighting of the largest Christmas tree in the region, the WEJL Radio tower.
“It’s funny my bedroom window looked right towards downtown Scranton, and I grew up in Southside, and when this thing came on, right around this time of year, I knew the holidays were coming, and sooner or later presents were coming my way,” said Prospector, the morning host of Rock 107.
After the tower lights turned on and the fireworks died down, the crowd dispersed. Some folks are going straight to the bars to celebrate the night before Thanksgiving.
“We got quite a bit of rush in from the fireworks this evening,” said Ryan Poplawski, Backyard Ale House manager.
But the fireworks rush is nothing compared to the crowds Backyard Ale House sees later in the night.
“We have hundreds of people coming in and out of here on this evening,” said Poplawski. “Lot of times we hit occupancy, we have to cut the door, can’t let people in because we have so many people in here.”
It’s the same story at Ale Mary’s.
“It’s large crowds, last year we reached almost to six to 700 people around that range, so we’re expecting the same kind of volume for this year,” said Elizabeth Altier, Ale Mary’s manager.
It’s one of the busiest and best days of the year for bars.
“I would probably rank it up there with parade day, it’s probably our second busiest day of the year,” added Poplawski.”It’s great for the business, we have a lot of people coming out and drinking, having a good time, our security team is great, we always try to make sure everyone’s having a good time and being respectful towards others.”