— CAPC Executive Director Mike Maloney
A New Year’s Eve celebration at Basin Springs Park is in the works.
Mike Maloney, director of the Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission, gave details that are being planned for an event scheduled for Dec. 31 to celebrate the ringing in of 2025.
“This is a thing we have been working on with the city, New Year’s Eve in Eureka Springs,” Maloney told members of the CAPC during a workshop held before to the commission’s regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 25.
The event will include a laser light show that will run throughout the night, live music and a ball drop from the top of Basin Park Hotel, Maloney said.
“It looks like a teardrop, but it’s a giant drop of water,” Maloney said of the “ball” that will “splash” into a “giant bucket of water” when it reaches midnight.
“We are going to commit $30,000 to that project and also taking some money out of our Aud advertising budget to help fund that out,” he said.
Commissioners indicated they liked the idea, saying New Year’s Eve has been “underwhelming” in recent years.
“So, we’re going to have a Times Square situation,” commissioner Robert Schmid said.
A television station is planning to bring a satellite truck and broadcast from the event, Maloney said.
“We’re probably have two or three bands, which is being worked on right now with the people at the Crescent and Basin Park [hotels], and there is talk of a parade, but I’m not sure how that is going to come together. Nobody really wants to organize a parade, but we’ll see.
“The whole point is we will have a giant New Year’s Eve celebration, which I think will be a lot of fun. If the weather holds, that would be good. We were able to find a phenomenal laser show that will come in and do the lights in the park all over the place, and then this drop is being orchestrated by some of our Eureka Springs artists that are working on the mechanics of it and the rigging that goes into it. … This is a huge, huge project.”
Maloney said Mayor Butch Berry is “way out in front” of the planning for the event, along with public works, saying that “the entire city is excited about this one.”
“It’s literally thinking outside the box in a big, big way,” Maloney said. “It should be a memorable event, and I think that it’ll be one for the books, so to speak.”
Another plan for the holidays is the purchase of a $2,600 “giant ribbon” that will go around The Auditorium, the director told commissioners.
“It’s going to be a spectacular ribbon that wraps up The Auditorium,” he said.
OTHER DISCUSSIONS
Schmid brought up the subject of the need for an event coordinator, something the CAPC hasn’t had in quite some time.
“We don’t really have an event coordinator, or event planner, like we used to,” Schmid said. “… Tracy [Johnson] was the last event planner, organizing in the name of the CAPC. Is there potential that we should have one so we can actually have more inhouse productions?”
Maloney responded: “Yes.”
“If we want to be more active, and outsource everything, that’s something maybe for next year that we do the budget where we can hire a professional or semi-professional event planner like we used to have it,” Schmid said. “I remember times during even COVID, Tracy Johnson was doing the best she could for the situation we had, like the music from the balcony, for example, or the little events here and there. I remember I got a lot of good feedback from my guests that said ‘this is amazing. You walk downtown and have that drizzle of music and the city is not dead.’
“So maybe we have to go back and revise that situation and say, we have somebody we can control and we can steer and we can engage in creating events …” Steve Holifield, commission chair, said the topic needs to be its own workshop and needs to happen before next year’s budget is developed.
“If you want to put a salary in there,” Holifield said.
Another topic brought up by Maloney regarded photography and video services that have in recent years been part of agreements with the CAPC’s advertising agencies.
“I’m going to recommend for 2025 that we pull the video and photography internally and not through Madden [Media],” Maloney said. “The reason why is that we know that we have the skills that exist within our community to do some phenomenal work. I think that we are probably in a better position to use that talent really with more at our beck and call.
“… [Madden], they do good work and I’m not going to discount that, but what I’m saying, basically, is I think we have better work available to us locally.
White Phoenix Films, based out of Eureka Springs, has done work for the CAPC in the past, and upcoming projects using the company for Zombie Crawl and Christmas events are planned, commissioners were told.
When discussing midyear budgets, specifically talk of expenses with The Auditorium, Holifield noted the $366,000 cost to operate the building, especially if eliminating the tourism tax and abolishing the CAPC is approved in the November election.
“When they talked about this petition to do away with the CAPC tax, are the taxpayers going to pick up this $366,000?” Holifield asked. “The Auditorium will close. That’s not even a stretch of the imagination.”