Pelican Drop

The Pelican Drop was a New Year's Eve celebration that took place each year in downtown Pensacola, Florida. At the ceremony, a pelican, Pensacola's mascot, was dropped instead of the typical New Year's ball. The event included live music and fireworks. Since 2008, The Pelican Drop has become a significant attraction in the area, drawing in crowds of up to 50,000 local residents, making it one of the largest events of its kind in the Central Time Zone. In 2014, the event was named as one of the Top 20 Events in the Southeast by the Southeast Tourism Society.

For a listing of other ball drops or raisings around the world, see List of objects dropped on New Year's Eve.

History

The First Pelican Drop New Year's Celebration took place in 2008. The Pensacola News Journal released an article stating that the CRA (or Pensacola Community Redevelopment Agency) was working on making a new kind of New Year's Eve celebration. The paper said that the celebration will be held at the Plaza Ferdinand VII and will also be live on WEAR-TV; beginning with the 2017 celebration, events were carried in simulcast on WEAR's Website. Almost 45,000 people showed up for the event, including residents of Mobile, Alabama (which hosts its own competing drop, a Moon Pie), Milton, Florida, Navarre, Florida, and Destin, Florida.[1]

In December 2019, organizers announced that the Pelican Drop had been canceled due to financial issues and the burden the event had caused on local police and public services. A smaller fireworks display, which does not require the same amount of traffic disruption, will be held instead.[2]

The pelican was made and designed by Emmett Andrews LLC.[3] Made of polished aluminum and decorated with over 2,000 lights, the bird has a 17-foot (5.2 m) wingspan and is 12 feet (3.7 m) high.[4]

gollark: What a strange type.
gollark: 🐱 🐈 ← paste them
gollark: ST - the thing nobody remembers exists!
gollark: Be wary of lens-based soul consumption.
gollark: ~~the lens will consume your soul~~

See also

References
  2. https://weartv.com/news/local/fireworks-but-no-pelican-drop-for-this-years-nye-celebration-in-downtown-pensacola
  3. Ross, Rebecca (December 7, 2008). "Build-a-bird". Pensacola News Journal. Pensacola, FL. pp. E1. Retrieved November 23, 2011.
  4. Scheurich, Hal (December 31, 2010). "Pensy Pelican readies for New Year drop". Fox10 TV. WALA-TV. Archived from the original on April 5, 2012. Retrieved November 23, 2011.
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