Make the most of New Year’s fireworks in Prospect Park

There’s no shortage of great, cheap, odd-ball stuff to do around Brooklyn tomorrow night, but it’d be a shame to overlook the borough’s most time-honored, biggest crowd-pleaser of a New Year’s event: midnight fireworks at Prospect Park. The 28th annual pyrotechnics should be quite a display, and there’s a full hour of festivities leading up to the show. We spoke to our friends at the Prospect Park Alliance, and here’s the low-down on where to go, what’s in store and the historic event happening after the sky’s gone dark.

The pre-show festivities
Show up around 11 p.m. at Grand Army Plaza for free live music and hot refreshments. The Blacksmith Organization’s providing some R&B and Motown tunes, and the hot refreshments are the chilly-night favorites, cocoa and cider (last year, a la Starbucks). Also in store, for all you resolute exercisers, is a pre-fireworks fun run around the park. Slope Sports and the Brooklyn Road Runners Club are sponsoring the 11:15, three-mile run which starts and ends at 9th St. and Prospect Park West. $20 today, $25 tomorrow—register here.

The fireworks: where to see them
Stay at Grand Army Plaza for the midnight show or see it from one of the official best viewing spots: inside the park on the West Drive or along Prospect Park West, from 9th St. to Grand Army Plaza. The fireworks will be shot from the Long Meadow, which will be closed to the public, so don’t even try getting in. You’ll have a view from plenty of other spots around the park, but avoid any dense woods with those pesky view-blocking trees.

Crowds and weather
Turnout hinges on the weather, of course, but expect anywhere from 500 to 1,500 people in the main viewing areas, based on past years. You’ll be among bona fide fans who’ve made the trip and some last-minute attendees who pop out of their apartments or desert their prix fixe meals for the show. As for the forecast, it could be a bit wet, but that’s no cause for cancellation. Apparently, strong winds are the only show-stopper (determined by the FDNY), and that shouldn’t be the case tomorrow.

Some post-show history
Brooklyn BP Marty Markowitz is sponsoring the whole event, and it’s a big night for him too. Stay around after the 10 to 15 minute of fireworks, and you can see Markowitz sworn in to his third term as our borough president.

How to get there
2 or 3 train to Grand Army Plaza; Q train to Seventh Ave.; B-41, B-71, B-69 buses to Grand Army Plaza.