- October 9, 2024
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The New Year’s Eve celebrations at Flagler Beach will include a fireworks show this year.
The show has a $35,000 budget — the $25,000 originally budgeted for the July Fourth fireworks show, plus $10,000 from a contingency fund — and will take place at the pier at midnight on New Year’s Eve. The Flagler Beach Commission is also planning a “surfboard drop” in Veterans Park that mimics the iconic New Year’s Eve ball drop.
The New Year’s Eve fireworks and surfboard drop is the brainchild of City Manager Dale Martin and Commission Chair Eric Cooley. Martin said he asked residents in Flagler Beach what kind of celebrations the city normally does for the new year.
“Basically, the answer was, ‘we don’t do anything,’” Martin said, “which seemed out of sorts with the way that I’ve come to understand the culture of this community. ... It’s a festive town.”
Martin met with a representative of the firework company My Three Sons, which performed the Flagler County Fourth of July fireworks. The New Year’s Eve show would last about 12 minutes.
The commission unanimously approved the extra funding request at a special workshop on Nov. 20. This will be the first fireworks show in Flagler Beach since 2019.
The commission wholeheartedly approved the idea.
“I think it’ll be a wonderful thing, and maybe it’d be another tradition that we could look to in the future,” Commissioner James Sherman said.
“Everyone wants the fireworks at the beach, in the glow over the ocean,” Mayor Suzie Johnston said.
The oversized surfboard that will be lowered from a fire truck in Veteran’s Park will be built by the local surfboard company Tango Surfboards. Cooley said Tango Surfboards intends to cover the oversized board with LED lights.
“It’s all about local,” Cooley said. “So, it’s just good to have local vendors already stepping up.”
Depending on how construction proceeds on the city’s new pier, this could be the last fireworks show at the pier for another couple of years, Cooley said.
Martin said a My Three Sons representative believed the pier is long enough that the company could use 4-inch shells for the show.
The A-frame will need to be completely empty before the show, as will a small portion of the beach surrounding the pier, Martin said.
“That building would have to be vacated, in all likelihood, completely by 10 o’clock at night,” he said.
Martin said that Gabe Perdomo, the project manager handling the pier design, said it would be safe to use the pier as the launching point. Martin is also working to coordinate with the fire and police departments to ensure safety.
For this first show, the commission decided to keep the celebrations simple, eschewing bounce houses for kids but agreeing that a DJ at the park before the fireworks show might be nice.
There was some discussion about holding the show a little earlier to accommodate families with children, but the commission unanimously decided to keep the show at midnight.
“Fireworks for New Year’s is at midnight,” Belhumeur said.
“New Year’s Eve has not ever been designed to be a, we’ll call it, a kid-friendly holiday or event,” Cooley said.
