New York City started 2024 with a big bang as hundreds of thousands of revelers packed into Times Square Sunday night, while pro-Palestinian protestors filled streets outside the celebratory area.
Roughly 3,000 pounds of confetti dropped on the Big Apple hot spot as Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York,” boomed after the iconic ball — covered in 2,688 crystal triangles — dropped at midnight finishing out 2023.
“It’s beautiful,” Corin Christian of Charlotte, NC, said from Times Square seconds past midnight.
Tyrell Jacobs and Sarah Crayton landed in New York from New Orleans just 15 hours before midnight and made a bee line to Midtown.
“It’s definitely a must-see,” Crayton said of the colorful cast of strangers wearing tall hats and blowing noisemakers. “At least go once, you know, just to experience the magic.”
Times Square Alliance volunteers throw confetti as the clock strikes midnight as seen from the New York Marriott Marquis during the New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square on Jan. 1, 2024, in New York. AP
Confetti flies around after the clock strikes midnight during New Year celebrations at Times Square, in New York City. REUTERSThrongs of people arrived early in the morning for a prime spot in one of the barricaded pens set up by the NYPD before LL Cool J and Megan Thee Stallion performed as the countdown to midnight neared.
Markus Washington, 49, came a short trip from Brooklyn for his first-ever Times Square celebration.
“It’s a very good feeling,” he said. “Awesome. Cold, but awesome.”
Antonio Ruiz, 51, flew in from Spain to achieve a lifelong dream. He arrived at Times Square around 8:15 a.m.
“Since I was a kid, I saw on TV this is a spectacular show, so I had to live it,” he said.
But not everyone was celebrating the start of a new year.
Pro-Palestinian protestors marched through other parts of Manhattan as the war between Israel and Hamas rages on, with tens of thousands already killed.
Police officers were out in full force as the conflict cast a shadow over the festivities.
Mayor Eric Adams previously said there had been no specific threats targeting the Times Square celebration, but that security would be heavily heightened with a “buffer zone” creating a police perimeter around the revelers.
Protesters marched in and around parts of the island on Sunday night into Monday, including near the Square.
Protesters gather during New Year’s Eve in front of Macy’s at Herald Square. December 31, 2023. ZUMAPRESS.comAs the ball dropped, about 50 protesters occupied the main hall of Grand Central Station while some demonstrators also set off a smoke bomb in Macy’s at Herald Square earlier Sunday, law enforcement sources told The Post.
At least one arrest was made at 39th Street and Broadway Sunday evening, sources said.
The NYPD said it did not have information on any arrests early Monday morning.
With Post wires
