Downtown Somerset’s New Year’s Eve festival is back

Light Up 2025 Bash will feature all the fan favorites: Prop Drop, food vendors, live music and entertainment

The com­mu­ni­ty asked, and the City of Som­er­set will deliv­er.

After tak­ing a break from its annu­al out­door New Year’s Eve fes­ti­val last year to host an event inside The Vir­ginia, the See Som­er­set Light Up Bash is back by pop­u­lar demand.

“Over­whelm­ing­ly, our com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers told us they would rather cel­e­brate New Year’s Eve at Foun­tain Square,” said Leslie Ikerd, See Som­er­set Tourism exec­u­tive direc­tor and event coor­di­na­tor. “We had a won­der­ful event inside The Vir­ginia last year. But there is some­thing unique and spe­cial about count­ing down to the new year out­side around the com­mu­ni­ty Christ­mas tree, watch­ing the ‘prop drop,’ and danc­ing the night away. We built a Som­er­set tra­di­tion with this fes­ti­val and we’re excit­ed to bring it back for our com­mu­ni­ty.”

The Light Up 2025 Bash begins at 7 p.m. Tues­day, Dec. 31, at Foun­tain Square and will include every­thing the thou­sands of atten­dees have come to expect — local food trucks, spir­its ven­dors, a Prop Drop count­down, live music, and a dance par­ty to wel­come the new year.

But Ikerd said atten­dees and res­i­dents should be aware of two impor­tant changes to this year’s fes­ti­val: First, roads with­in the fes­ti­val area will close ear­li­er this year, at 6 p.m. on Mon­day, Dec. 30, and there will be only one gate where atten­dees can pur­chase spir­it wrist­bands.

“Because it is a hol­i­day, it is always chal­leng­ing for us to have enough employ­ees and vol­un­teers to work this event,” Ikerd said. “I am so grate­ful for the team that pulls togeth­er to ensure this fes­ti­val hap­pens safe­ly and with­out a hitch. That said, it is a long day for them, so by clos­ing the roads ear­li­er, we have more time to build the stage and our employ­ees get impor­tant time to rest before work­ing into the ear­ly morn­ing hours of New Year’s Day.”

Ikerd said any­one who needs to do busi­ness on or near the square on New Year’s Eve should be aware and locate anoth­er way to access the area. 

All roads lead­ing into Foun­tain Square (East and West Mount Ver­non, North and South Main) will be closed around the square, as will North and South Maple from the inter­sec­tion at Colum­bia Street to the Judi­cial Cen­ter park­ing lot. These roads will remain closed until the fes­ti­val is over, all bar­ri­cades are removed, and the streets in the fes­ti­val area are swept.

North and South Cen­tral Avenue will remain open for through traf­fic. The fol­low­ing road­ways may be use­ful for detour­ing the fes­ti­val area: Cen­tral Avenue, Lime­stone Avenue, Oak Street, Vine Street, Craw­ford Avenue, South Richard­son Dri­ve, Mur­phy Avenue, Jarvis Avenue, Col­lege Street and Bar­nett Street.

Ikerd said busi­ness­es with­in the fes­ti­val bound­aries, which includes Foun­tain Square, are noti­fied by email and social media about the road clo­sures so they can pre­pare accord­ing­ly.

The Light Up 2025 Bash is free to attend, but as with all city fes­ti­vals, those who want to pur­chase alco­holic bev­er­ages must buy a spir­it wrist­band for $5. The gate to pur­chase will be locat­ed at Judi­cial Cen­ter Plaza, with sig­nage locat­ed at all oth­er reg­u­lar fes­ti­val entrances noti­fy­ing atten­dees of its loca­tion.

The enter­tain­ment line­up for the evening kicks off at 7 p.m. with The Som­er­set Big Band — musi­cians from around the Lake Cum­ber­land area who per­form the big band era stylings of Frank Sina­tra, Judy Gar­land, Nat King Cole and more. From the leg­endary Cincin­nati club scene of the 1990s and 2000s to becom­ing a cor­ner­stone of Somerset’s dance music cul­ture, Travis Mer­rick, aka DJ Trav­isty, has spent over 20 years spin­ning high-ener­gy beats and will bring those to the par­ty start­ing at 8:30 p.m.

And then at 9:30 p.m., Som­er­set wel­comes back the band that keeps the town danc­ing until mid­night with hits from the decades — The Next Lev­el Band of Char­lotte.

Foun­tain Square will be sur­round­ed by local food, drink and spir­its ven­dors, Ikerd said, and a large tent with tables and seat­ing will be avail­able for any­one who wants to escape the ele­ments. Fes­ti­val-goers are encour­aged to bring chairs and blan­kets. Sev­er­al down­town busi­ness­es will be open dur­ing the fes­ti­val, Ikerd said, and she encour­ages fes­ti­val-goers to vis­it those as well.

Safe rides home are once again spon­sored by The Law Office of Jere­my A. Bart­ley and pro­vid­ed by Pre­mier Trans­porta­tion of Lake Cum­ber­land. Those who dri­ve to the fes­ti­val but feel they need a ride home should call (606) 219‑1727 and make their way to Gate 2 locat­ed at Judi­cial Cen­ter Plaza to claim their ride. There is a 15-mile lim­it on rides, so if the drop-off loca­tion is far­ther than that, atten­dees should find a loca­tion to be dropped off at that is with­in this range.

Those inter­est­ed in book­ing a ride to the fes­ti­val should book ear­ly to receive the time they want by call­ing (606) 219‑1727. Spe­cial group rates are avail­able.

“Safe­ty is our No. 1 pri­or­i­ty,” Ikerd said. “We are ded­i­cat­ed to ensur­ing every­one who con­sumes alco­holic bev­er­ages at our fes­ti­val does so safe­ly and legal­ly. Please drink respon­si­bly, make sure you have a safe ride home, and don’t for­get your ID.”

Hand­i­cap park­ing is also avail­able at the Judi­cial Cen­ter Plaza gate.

Som­er­set May­or Alan Keck said he looks for­ward to bring­ing back this beloved com­mu­ni­ty event.

“When we decid­ed to move the New Year’s event to The Vir­ginia, we were sur­prised at the pub­lic out­cry to return to Foun­tain Square. But pleas­ant­ly so,” Keck said. “It meant that being at the square togeth­er as a com­mu­ni­ty on New Year’s Eve to cel­e­brate the past and look to the future with hope has become the tra­di­tion we hoped it would. It is what this dream of light­ing up Som­er­set was all about. It’s a cold night and a late night, but a fun one, and there’s no place I’d rather be. I am so excit­ed to bring back this fes­ti­val and hope to see our com­mu­ni­ty out in full force.”

For more infor­ma­tion about the Light Up 2025 Bash, includ­ing a full list of ven­dors and the event sched­ule, vis­it https://seesomerset.com/light-up-bash-2025/, or fol­low @SeeSomersetKy on Face­book or @seemyset on Insta­gram.