Everyone knows what the biggest event on New Year's Eve will be: Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, best known for featuring the hottest musical acts from its headquarters at Times Square-home to the famous ball drop-and for having the most apostrophes of any major holiday event. If you're not there, you might be ten blocks south, celebrating with Skrillex and Diplo at Madison Square Garden, or at any number of nightclubs around the world that make crazy amounts of money at this time of the year.
Surely some other options exist. Music Times has combed through the Facebook invites and funny pages to find some other opportunities for New Year's night. Finding someone to spend the evening with is all on you however.
The Billboard Hollywood Party
Dick Clark's namesake event has become so big over its 41 years of airing that it has branches elsewhere. The biggest of which will be the Billboard Hollywood Party in Los Angeles, which will stream live performances to the New York broadcast as well. Fergie will play the host (for the ninth year) and she'll have a healthy lineup of stars to keep track of throughout the evening: Iggy Azalea, Jason Derulo, Bastille and Rixton will be among the celebrators. We'll also see what Pentatonix has left in their system after the huge holiday sales/promotion season its having. What does "Auld Lang Syne" sound like a cappella? We imagine we'll find out!
The Bash on Broadway
We apologize to fans of the musical form: This event takes place on the second-most-famous Broadway in the world, in Nashville, the Music City. This is another annual event that will feature segments televised during the Rockin' New Year's Eve broadcast. Country music is the style of course, coming out of the genre's world headquarters, featuring Lady Antebellum as the headliner (with Gavin DeGraw chipping in too). Unlike the events going on in bigger cities, this one might not require you to camp out all day for a view. Host Chip Esten may not be a country musician but he plays one on TV (Deacon on Nashville).
Elton John
Only one more Dick Clark-related event, we promise. Although the aforementioned Madison Square Garden will be throwing down with Jack U on New Year's Eve, the Big Apple's other premier arena will play host to a more classic act: Elton John. The Rocket Man isn't set to take the stage until 9 PM so you know he's going to stretch that sucker until past midnight. Admittedly, this will cost you a tad more than heading over to Times Square: The "cheap seats" will run you $85. The benefits: You won't have to get up early to assure yourself a good spot, you won't have to spend any time out in the cold. Oh, and Elton John celebrating 40 years of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Parts of this show will also be broadcast on ABC.
Daryl's Rock 'n' Soul New Year's Eve
Oh shoot, did we say Dick Clark had the holiday apostrophe record? Look like Daryl Hall (of Hall & Oates fame) might have trumped him with "Daryl's Rock 'n' Soul New Year's Eve." Admittedly this gig is going to be a bit tougher to get to in person: Hall will be performing with guests from his restaurant, the Daryl's House Club in Pawling NY. Still interested, even if you don't live in New York? You can live stream Hall and co.'s performance, and a portion of the proceeds from tickets/streaming costs will go to City of Hope, a cancer research hospital. Plus, old buddy John Oates has stopped by for a surprise Hall & Oates performance in the past, so we can only hope.
Pitbull's New Year's Revolution
Pitbull does almost everything in a tuxedo so we'll see how he handles simply hosting an event while dressed to the nines. He'll host his "New Year's Revolution" in hometown of Miami at the swank new Thompson Miami Beach Hotel, and he'll get some help from his buddy Enrique Iglesias on the entertainment end of things. The event will be broadcast on Fox to compete with ABC's offering, but the emcee suggests you attend in person: "Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but whatever happens in Miami never happened!" he said in a statement.
MoonPie Over Mobile
Are you just over the glitz of the average big name New Year's Eve celebration? Maybe you belong in Mobile, AL for its acclaimed MoonPie Over Mobile. The weather will be warmer than New York, that's for sure, plus instead of dropping a big ball of lights, the Alabama city drops an enormous MoonPie. If you don't know what a MoonPie is, you've been missing out. And, to top things off, a performance from the perfect party act: The Village People.
And, for the paparazzi among you...
One of the biggest source of readers for the day after New Year's Eve are articles focusing on the private parties and the celebrities who attended them (unlike post-Oscar or Grammy parties, these ones aren't as well publicized in advance). One that's caught many a tabloid's attention so far is Mick Jagger's annual celebration at his home in Mustique, near St. Vincent and The Grenadines in The Bahamas. Some questioned whether the event would still be on in the shadow of his girlfriend L'Wren Scott's suicide earlier this year, but it seems to be. Kate Moss and Tommy Hilfiger are reportedly attending.
