Harvey Ball Drop

**The Harvey Ball Drop** is a street-wide New Year's Eve fancy dress party, a fireworks display event, a copy of Times Square Ball event and a North Confetti New Year's Eve event held in Harvey Street since 1962. It is the largest New Year's Eve fancy dress party and the largest ball drop celebration with over 13.5 million in attendance and with over 2.9 billion watching the Harvey Ball Drop at home. This ball drop event surpassed Times Square Ball in 2026. Harvey Street provides a mix of celebrations influenced by Looe in Cornwall (for fancy dress and fireworks) and Times Square in New York. (for the ball)

## Overview

In 1951, Harvey E. Harveson to throw a fancy dress party for New Year's Eve due to Cornish influence. As the night went on and the cheerful mood increased, they took to the streets to show their outfits. On 31 December 1952, the first many kids on Harvey Street throw fancy dress themes for the night and inevitably the temptation to take to the street and show off was too much to resist.

In 1960, the organiser, Bennett Harveson, decided to add something to New Year's Eve celebrations in Harvey Street that would become the famous celebration that everyone knows and loves today (along with the fancy dress night and fireworks): the ball drop, after he saw the ball drop at Times Square during his holiday in New York (first held on 31 December 1907, and is based on the old Western Union Telegraph Building's time ball). It is named "The Harvey Ball Drop", named after the founder, Harvey E. Harveson. He used the statue of the founder as a base model. The ball was made out of cast iron, and had 100 light bulbs. Many kids decided to throw an fancy dress party on the dinner on 31 December 1962 for the first Harvey Ball Drop. The ball was lowered for the first time at 11:59 pm, welcoming 1963. Ball dropping events were suspended in 1971 and 1972 due to wartime blackouts, but resumed in 1973. Those who celebrate New Year's Eve in 1971 and 1972 in these street are gathered instead with fireworks displays and setting "1972" or "1973" (indicating the new years of 1971 and 1972 respectively) on fire.

The aluminium ball was the longest-used ball, the ball was hand/pulley-controlled until 1995, and then computer-controlled from 1996 to 1998.

In 1971, the Harvesons went to Moulin Rouge cabaret in Paris, France and saw a female dancer in a feathery costume. She decided that the beautiful feathery costume that she saw–would apply to Alice, who has been sitting above the four-digit sign since its first Alice's Ball Drop event, at the then newly-renovated Toshiba Chemicals Tower (known as Toshiba Intel Tower from 1973).

By 1976, Alice's Ball Drop surpassed Times Square Ball as the largest New Year's Eve ball-dropping event with 10 million people in attendance. By 1978, Alice's Ball Drop became the largest New Year's Eve fancy dress party.

For the 1979–1980 event, Alice changed its costume again: this time, it is Moulin Rouge-related, but it comes from *Follement*, as Altona Fallenghaer, a designer, went to Moulin Rouge cabaret in Paris during 1978.

In 1995, Alice's costume was changed for the third time to a feathery costume from Moulin Rouge's *Formidable*. The numbers indicating the year are formed from two sets of signs filled with "19" and "9*x*" respectively, where *x* is the last digit of the four-digit year that they would welcome. This was done by the sign maker, Videotape Toshiba, who also installed the big video screen at the former Toshiba Intel Tower (now called Alice's Times Square), and the designer, Sofia Carlbard. For the 1996–1997 event, the aluminium ball was given a computerised lighting system with 180 halogen bulbs and 144 strobe lights, and over 12,000 rhinestones, basically the same as that of Times Square. The ball drop became computerised through an electric winch synchronised through the time signal at Toshiba University of Technology.

By 1998, Technicolor became the new official sponsor for Alice's Ball Drop replacing Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop). The reason why Technicolor became the new official sponsor of Alice's Ball Drop is because Disney used Technicolor, notably for animated films, including *Alice in Wonderland*. The aluminium ball was retired in 1999 in favour of a copy of Times Square millennium ball, which incorporated a total of over 600 halogen bulbs and 504 triangle-shaped crystal panels.

For the 2001–2002 event, Technicolor retired from being the sponsor of Alice's Ball Drop and Haribo, a confectionary company based in Bonn, Germany, took as the official sponsor of the drop. Also, Alice changed its costume that is still intact today. Horlen Brannele, a designer, went to Moulin Rouge cabaret at Paris, France with the rest of his family during the family's holiday on July 2001. He saw dazzling costumes consisting of 1,000 red feathers, rhinestones and sequins worn by dancers. He insisted that he would apply the costume that he saw on the stage to Alice, who sits above the numerical sign which is still intact. Toshiba Signage Company hired Horlen Branelle to build the "02" sign in preparation for New Year's Eve 2001, the sign showing Alice in a dazzling costume that he saw during a holiday in Paris (to be placed above the year indicator sign), and the sculptures of the characters Mad Hatter, White Rabbit and the Queen of Hearts.

The current ball uses LED technology, is designed to be weatherproof, and made in 2008 to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Alice's Ball Drop. The panels of the new ball can produce 16 million colours. The ball would now be displayed atop Alice's Times Square following the celebrations. For the 2007–2008 event, Haribo retired from being a sponsor of Alice's Ball Drop, and Rubie's, the largest designer, manufacturer and distributor of costumes and accessories, takes overs the sponsorship of Alice's Ball Drop which still remains as the sponsor today.

Since 1996, the signs on the roof Alice's Times Square indicate the year, and use the Toowong font. Toowong was originally developed by Brisbane Transport for use as a fleet number font in public transport of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and has been prominent as a font for numerals in Alice’s Ball Drop since 1971. Each year, a different theme is chosen.

## Attendance

As of 2019–2020 Alice's Ball Drop, approximately 14.65 million attended Alice's Ball Drop, of which 97.85% (14.33 million approximately) are in costumes. Of 14.33 million in costumes, 82% are dressed as book or film characters (that is, 11.75 million).

The most popular costumes for the 2019–2020 event are superheroes, pirates, vampires, witches, princesses and knights.

## Media

### Harvey Street Broadcasting System

* *Alice's New Year's Drop to the Roof* (1948–1964)
* *Alice in Slumberland* (1965–1970)
* *Alice's Fantastic 1970s* (All of the 1970s except 1979)
* *Happy New Year from Mad Hatter* (1979–1999)
* *Alice's Ball Dropping Land* (2000–present)

### Eight Network

* *Barry Mudderson's New Year's Rockin' Eve* (1965–present) (also airs on Disney Channel since 1984)