This New Year’s Eve has been the first in the History of Salida, Co to incorporate the dropping of an eight foot tall, lit up, giant heart to ring in the 2025 New Year. The large heart was held up by a large rope from a Salida fire department’s ladder truck and was dropped for the city of Salida’s New Year’s Eve revelers at both nine pm and twelve pm on December 31, 2024. The giant heart drop took place in downtown Salida at the intersection of F Street and Sackett Avenue. The heart was raised fifty feet up into the air to make the dropping of it more exciting and joyous for everyone there to see. 

The idea of the giant heart drop was brought to the people by the City of Salida, community developer director Bill Almquist, as well as Salida’s very own High Country Bank. Danny Ridenour with The Heart of the Rockies Radio introduced the “Salida Starlettes” to perform a dance choreography, and then opening up the area for fun dancing activities. 

The giant lit up heart was made by members of Salida’s Art District and invited people of the community to volunteer by contributing to help bring the idea of this event to life. The dropping of this massive heart was of course inspired by the New York City’s annual tradition of the New Year’s Eve ball being dropped at midnight in Times Square. The tradition of Time Square’s New Year’s Eve ball drop started in 1907 by the original owner of the New York Times. This event was to celebrate the opening of New York’s Times Tower. The first ball was made of wood and iron with light bulbs covering its surface, and it weighed 700 pounds. The ball drop has been improved overtime and is now made out of Waterford crystal with LED lights, and it weighs about 11,875 pounds now! The tradition of the New Year’s Eve ball drop has continued as an annual tradition since then, with the exception of a few years during WWII because of war restrictions. 

Both New York’s Times Square and Salida’s New Year’s Eve ball drops are to celebrate the transition into a new year and out of the previous one. This creates an environment for people to gather, cheer, and make unforgettable memories whether it’s in a community setting as big and busy as Times Square, or right in the heart of our downtown Salida.