Winter Fest celebration welcomes the new year in Costa Mesa
One of Orange County’s biggest New Year’s Eve celebrations can be found Tuesday in Costa Mesa as Winter Fest OC hosts a family-friendly countdown.
The festival at the OC Fair & Event Center plans fireworks and a drop of 3,000 balloons at 6 p.m. and midnight.
Admission to the celebration is included in the day’s ticket to Winter Fest and with season passes. Prices of available tickets range from $10 to $249.
Winter Fest, which began Dec. 19, runs through this weekend. Tuesday’s hours are 2 p.m. to 1 a.m.
The 18-day festival in Costa Mesa brings its usual wintry spirit, with snow, ice tubing down a 150-foot mountain and an ice skating rink. But this time it also has a 1,500-square-foot candy maze, animal racing and a Victorian village.
The festival includes ice tubing, a snow play and slide area, a pathway with 2 million lights, a nightly tree-lighting celebration with a parade of Winter Fest characters, Dickens’ LondonTowne, a model train exhibit, children’s bounce houses and slides, craft making and games, live music, magic shows, strolling entertainers, cartoon characters, racing pigs and a snowboard simulator.
New Year’s Eve entertainment at the Hangar will feature Taylor Swift tribute Twist on Taylor from 6 to 7:30 p.m., ABBA tribute ABBA LA from 8:30 to 10 p.m. and Elton — The Early Years from 11 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.
Other acts at the Hangar this week are Smiths/Morrisey tribute Nowhere Fast on Wednesday, country singer Morgan Leigh on Thursday, Bruno Mars tribute Earth to Mars on Friday, Fleetwood Mac tribute Rumours on Saturday and the English Beat on Sunday.
The Grinch is greeting kids Tuesday and Wednesday at the Hangar, followed by the PAW Patrol from Thursday to Sunday.
The OC Fair & Event Center is at 88 Fair Drive. For more information, visit winterfestoc.com.
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