Music note, shrimp and a giant heel among items dropped New Year’s Eve

Food, shoes and other items are dropped by communities to mark the beginning of the new year each New Year’s Eve.
A potato and pierogi are among the items dropped.

An image of a giant colorful ball in New York City’s Times Square may come to mind for many when thinking about New Year’s Eve, but for several others across the country, ringing in the new year looks a little different.

Throughout the nation, places have chosen items unique to their cities and states to drop at the stroke of midnight to celebrate the dawning of a new year, including large lit-up mechanical pieces of food, shoes, and symbols of the city itself.

Here’s a look at some of the most unusual New Year’s Eve drops in the United States.

Nashville notes the new year

In the “Music City,” it’s only natural that the new year is rung in with a famed red music note dropped from a 140-foot tower at midnight. The giant aluminum and acrylic music note stands 16 feet tall and weighs around 400 pounds. There are 28.140 LED pixels in the note, according to Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. When the note drops at midnight, it is accompanied by a 90-second firework display.

Door County’s cherry drop

This is year No. 9 for Door County, Wisconsin’s giant cherry drop. The county chose to welcome the new year with the sparkling 300-pound cherry as a way to boost travel in the winter season and also create a celebration with locals, according to Ellie Soderberg-Guger of the Sister Bay Information Center, who added that the event has brought tourism awards and grants to the area since it started.

Amelia Island favors shrimp

Ten years ago, Amelia Island, Florida, launched a new tradition of dropping a giant shrimp to mark the new year alongside fireworks, Madison Jozsa, the director of public relations & social media at Amelia Island Convention & Visitors Bureau, told USA TODAY. “The Shrimp was a logical choice since Fernandina is renowned as the birthplace of the modern shrimping industry,” Jozsa added.

Fans can watch the LED, custom shrimp drop at a waterfront event in downtown Fernandina Beach that also features food, music and vendors. This year’s LED shrimp will be new and improved, Jozsa added, and the event will include a “Name the Shrimp” competition.

Key West heel clicks into 2026

In southern Florida’s Key West, the New Year’s Eve ball drop looks a bit different from jumbo shrimp. Key West has dropped a giant, ruby-red heel for more than 20 years, complete with a drag queen inside of it as it’s being lowered.

“Each year a fabulous drag queen climbs over a balcony railing in a gorgeous gown and carefully settles herself in the eight-foot-long red high heel dangling some 15 feet above Duval Street, smiles and gives a ‘queen’s wave’ to thousands of cheering New Year’s Eve revelers below,” the Visit Florida Keys website states. The event includes performances by other entertainers as well.

Boise’s glowing potato drop

In Boise, Idaho, fans can watch for the 13th year as a giant, glowing potato is dropped at the state’s capitol. The tater glows above the city for a few hours before it drops at midnight alongside a firework display. The Potato Rise begins at 6 p.m. local time. While it might look real, it’s not an actual potato dangling above the city. The item is a custom-built polystyrene resin potato illuminated from within and painted to resemble a real Idaho potato, according to the event’s website.

Plop goes the pierogi in Whiting

In Whiting, Indiana, a different type of potato dish takes to the skies to commemorate the new year. The northwest Indiana town has dropped a pierogi at midnight for the past nine years, and will do so again this New Year’s Eve, along with fireworks.

The 10-foot pierogi is illuminated with lights while it drops 50 feet into a boiling caldron. The event, organized by the Whiting Knights of Columbus, is “a little out there,” Andy Dybel, chairman of the pierogi drop, told USA TODAY. “We’ve got the big compound clocks, and we got lighting, and we got music and confetti and the church bells in town ring right when this happens.”

Raleigh drops a giant acorn

North Carolina’s “City of Oaks” celebrates the new year with a giant cooper-and-steel acorn drop. The acorn, commissioned for Raleigh’s bicentennial in 1992, is 10 feet tall and weighs more than 1,200 pounds, according to the Downtown Raleigh Alliance.

Local artist David Benson created the acorn as a riff on the city’s nickname. When it’s not being lowered on a crane to cap off the annual First Night celebration, the acorn can be found on display at Raleigh’s City Plaza. “It’s a beloved icon, for sure,” said Stacy Bloom-Rexrode, curator of exhibitions and collections for the city’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department.