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The mischievous behavior that parents usually discourage — such a banging on metal garbage cans or hitting strangers with beach balls — is acceptable at EVE Winterfest.
Salt Lake City's end-of-the-year celebration, which runs Tuesday-Thursday, is all about fun and games. (See schedule.)
"Every single room is a separate, contemporary art piece built on a different sense of play," said Topher Horman, EVE's creative director who thinks up big ideas and then makes them come to life.
Like the new GameRoom with couches, lamps and nostalgic pictures where guests can play oversized games such as checkers, Jenga, Yahtzee, dominoes and corn hole.
The room also includes a separate LED glow area — called EVE Island — where guests can participate in a giant Minecraft video game. Laptops will be provided, but guests also can use a smartphones or personal tablet to play the popular 3D video game. Fans who can't make it to Salt Palace Convention Center can log in from home, Horman said.
"We came up with the oversize games to build on a sense of memory," Horman said. "Growing up in suburbia, we all played in our family room or a neighbors basement."
Horman is especially interested in seeing how people play with the dominoes. "Will they play the game or just start lining them up and knocking them down?" he wondered.
From the GameRoom, guests can take the escalator down to the Crash Box area, where they can bang on garbage cans and lids; or they can make their way to the BounceTown, a room filled with inflatable bounce houses and slides, or the BallRoom where they can bounce, kick or throw one of the 2,016 plastic beach balls that will be inflated for the event.
Horman, a Salt Lake-area resident who organizes events and pre-game shows around the country, said there's nothing better than seeing the momentum in the BallRoom build. It starts gently with people kicking the balls and then tossing them around, until eventually "you get hit in the head by a total stranger and you both laugh about it," Horman said. "In my mind, that is the most incredible thing."
On Tuesday and Wednesday, EVE runs 6 to 10 p.m. On Thursday, the festivities run from 3 p.m. to midnight. Food will be served throughout the event, which includes live music and dance performances on the World Stage and the Big Band Stage all three nights. The Thursday night headliner is the Caleb Chapman Crescent Super Band.
The first 1,000 people in line on Tuesday can get a voucher to attend the Utah Jazz/Portland Trail Blazers game on Dec. 31
But the centerpiece of the EVE celebration is the giant MirrorBall on the southeastern plaza. On Tuesday, EVEgoers will be able climb inside the ball for photos. On Wednesday, they can see it spinning on its UFO-type base; and by midnight on Dec. 31, it will be lifted into place in preparation for its descent as the clock counts down to midnight.
Last year, the giant disco ball didn't drop, providing a bit of a letdown for the crowd, which expected something similar to the crystal ball that drops in New York City's Times Square every year. This year, the Downtown Alliance, which sponsors the event, said it will drop in some way.
It won't be easy: The orb weighs 2,433 pounds and has a circumference of more than 60 feet. The massive installation was created by Utah artist Derek Dyer, who used 1,200 mirrors — each one a 12-inch square.
While cities in other countries have used large-scale light shows with disco balls for celebrations, Salt Lake City's MirrorBall is considered the largest mirrored sphere in the United States.
Salt Lake City will ring in 2016 with a three-day celebration of music and culture that includes a countdown to midnight with the giant MirrorBall.
When • Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 29-30, 6 to 10 p.m.; Thursday, Dec. 31, 3 p.m. to midnight
Where • 10 venues in downtown Salt Lake City, including the Salt Palace, Clark Planetarium, Off Broadway Theatre, Broadway Centre Cinemas, Discovery Gateway, The Leonardo, Gallivan Center, Temple Square, City Creek Center and UMOCA
Cost • Three-day passes are $20 for adults and $15 for children 3 to 9; single-day tickets also are available
Details • http://eveslc.com