Ball Drop in Lockhart could become tradition

By Kyle Mooty

LPR Editor

With hopes of beginning a new tradition, A New Year’s Eve Ball Drop will take place at midnight on New Year’s Eve in Lockhart as 2022 leaves and 2023 steps forward.

The ball will drop from the second-story Eldorado building to about 10 feet shy of Main Street at the entrance of Little Trouble. It will be free the public, although Little Trouble and Eldorado are hosting a New Year’s Eve fundraiser – Midnight in New Orleans — for Gaslight-Baker Theatre for ticketed guests from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.

“The ball itself is an inflated weather balloon with Velcro lights all around it,” business owner Alex Worthington said. “Just as the ball drops during the countdown, we will display a lighted 2023 sign right at midnight.”

Main Street will remain open during the ball drop, but Worthington, who hopes the event will continue each year, said everyone is invited to come out and watch the event.

Also on New Year’s Eve, from 8:30-11:30 p.m., the RDO Band will be playing at The PEARL where there will be a Customer Appreciation party with appetizers and a champagne toast at 11 p.m. (midnight in New York).

El Rey Bar & Nightclub will begin its festivities at 9 p.m. with a DJ.

Old Pal is serving a New Year’s tradition of black eyes peas and biscuits at midnight.

Prairie Lea will be the site of the Kingdom Explosion New Year’s Eve Block Party from 6 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. There will be musical guests and a fireworks show.