After 15 New Year’s Eves spent dropping a gigantic beach ball covered in string lights off the roof of his restaurant, John Dobbs, the owner of Paddy Murphy’s in downtown Bangor, is passing the ball off to the next generation of year-end revelers.
This year, the downtown Bangor New Year’s Eve ball drop will happen on the roof of 6 Central St., at the corner of Hammond and Central streets, the home of Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness, just a few hundred feet from Paddy Murphy’s.
The ball drop is the signature event for the Downtown Bangor Partnership’s Downtown Countdown celebration, which has traditionally included live music, children’s events, theater, comedy and other entertainment leading up to midnight. The ball drop was started in 2004 by local lawyer Steven Smith, who that year, on a whim, taped a bunch of Christmas lights to a beach ball and chucked it off the roof of 26 Main St., which he and his wife owned at the time.
After opening Paddy Murphy’s in 2007, Dobbs purchased 26 Main St. in 2009 and took over the ball drop. Over the years, the crowd has grown from a few hundred in 2004 to a peak of more than 4,000 in 2015. Last year, the event drew around 2,000 people.
“We love the city of Bangor, and it has been amazing to see the growth of this event since we took it over from Steven Smith in 2009,” Dobbs said. “We are ready to pass it on and become spectators ourselves. Passing events on is good and breathes new life into established events.”
Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness moved into 6 Central St. in late 2022, and are currently in the process of renovating most of the building to include a cultural center that’s open to the public. The offices for the nonprofit, which serves Maine’s four federally recognized Native American tribes, are already open.
“The building sits at ‘the corner of Main and Main’, as we like to say in the real estate industry,” said Bev Uhlenhake, chief development officer for Sky Villa Properties, the company that owns 6 Central St. “There couldn’t be a better spot for Bangor to ring in the new year than smack dab in the center of downtown.”
This year’s Downtown Countdown will feature children’s events at the Bangor Public Library and the Maine Discovery Museum, live music at bars and venues, a special hair metal-themed show at the Penobscot Theatre, and others to be announced. For more information, visit downtownbangor.com.