New York – Times Square revelers will greet the new year amid a blizzard of 7,000 pounds of confetti – three times the usual amount, event organizers said.
A hundred confetti-tossers will hurl the more than 3 tons of shredded paper from 11 buildings during a five-hour celebration leading up to midnight.
And this year, the party paper will be inscribed with such goodwill messages as “peace,” “celebrate” and “dance,” according to event coordinator Treb Heining.
Beginning at 7 p.m. a countdown each hour will prompt a 1,000-pound torrent of the flameproof word-fetti. The remainder is dumped at midnight.
Fireworks will accompany the first five confetti drops.
“It’s millions and millions and millions of separate pieces,” said Heining, of Newport Beach, Calif., who has been managing the Times Square confetti drops for 15 years.
Volunteers are trained in the craft of paper-pitching to avoid an occupational hazard Heining calls confetti arm.
They also must shed any rings or watches to ensure that they don’t drop anything heavier than the paper they scoop out of 45-pound boxes.
“You have to pick the confetti out, there’s really a special technique for throwing it that I can’t describe, but it’s all coordinated with the crew chiefs using the walkie-talkies,” Heining said.
