Picture by Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Structure through AP
The Peach Drop, an Atlanta custom that celebrates New 12 months’s Eve, is returning to Underground Atlanta this 12 months—however its long-term future remains to be unsure. Launched in 1989 as Atlanta’s model of New York Metropolis’s Occasions Sq. Ball Drop, the Pitch Drop has, in recent times, endured a number of stops and begins which have crippled the pageant’s momentum and significance. Will it survive Atlanta’s subsequent chapter, or develop into one other relic of town’s previous?
For many years, the Peach Drop was held each New 12 months’s Eve outdoors of Underground Atlanta. The occasion recurrently attracts about 100,000 spectators, who depend right down to midnight and cheer because the 800-pound fiberglass peach descends from a specifically constructed, 138-foot scaffold.
However the custom was interrupted in 2017, when Underground Atlanta was offered to South Carolina-based actual property developer WRS Inc. The pageant lasted a couple of extra years, transferring to the Flatiron Constructing after which returning to Underground Atlanta in 2018. Mayor Keisha Lance Backside canceled the occasion in 2019, citing uncertainty concerning the location and the next 12 months, Covid-19 nipped group gatherings within the bud.
Pandemic shutdowns and subsequent spikes within the covid variant stored Peach Drop off the agenda between 2020 and 2022. The occasion made a modest return to play in 2023, drawing tens of hundreds of attendees to the Underground for a present headlined by Jermaine Dupri, however was once more canceled up entrance. 2024 New 12 months celebration. A spokeswoman for Mayor Andre Dickens stated the occasion’s cash was earmarked to have a good time hip-hop’s fiftieth anniversary, fairly than town’s, and referred to as the pitch drop “a worthy legacy of the previous.”
The fortunes of this 12 months’s upset fruit-free fall are as soon as once more unsettled. However in October, town introduced a partnership with worldwide occasion promoter Stay Nation, which agreed to supply the occasion at Underground Atlanta. The Metropolis Council accredited $650,000 to assist Stay Nation e-book performers, host fireworks exhibits and assist with different occasion logistics. The deal is just for one 12 months, however Peach Drop’s long-term destiny nonetheless hangs within the air.
The way forward for its host venue stays equally unsure. Lalani Ventures, which purchased Underground Atlanta in 2020, is attempting to rebrand the long-declining downtown complicated as a scorching spot for nightlife and artwork. Along with The Masquerade, which relocated to the underground warren in 2016, Lalani has added a number of nightclubs, bars and stay music venues, and leases concessions to artists and galleries. “We’re proud. . . To welcome Atlanta’s most beloved custom, the Pitch Drop, again to the property,” CEO Shanelle Lalani informed native station 11Alive in 2022, “and we look ahead to internet hosting this monumental occasion for years to come back.”
Lalani Ventures’ redevelopment of Underground Atlanta is a part of a extra bold redevelopment of downtown, as non-public builders and metropolis leaders alike search to rebuild the district as a hub. Tasks embody renovations to Woodruff Park, revitalization of the eight-block-south downtown neighborhood and a serious overhaul of the 5 Factors MARTA station. It is too quickly to inform if plans for a revitalized downtown will succeed, but when the pitch drop can maintain off somewhat longer, it may be celebrated as a function of the previous Atlanta that lived to see the brand new.
This text seems in our December 2024 challenge.
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