Photos from this year's First Night Austin, which took place last Monday. The family-friendly New Year's Eve festival relies on volunteers and local performers. To find out how you can help with next year's festivities, visit their website. Photos courtesy of Steve Hopson. If you can't view the Flash slideshow above, an alternate version appears after the jump.......

Happy New Year, folks....

Image courtesy First Night Austin, by 2008 featured artist Alina Byoun Now in its third year, First Night Austin will return to downtown on New Year's Eve. This massive public gathering, intended to ring in the new year through "art, ritual, and festivity," features visual and performing art projects by more than 60 Austin artists. This year's performances and installations will run from Congress Avenue to Cesar Chavez, including Auditorium Shores, City Hall, and......

Photos from the First Night Austin Kickoff which took place Thursday, December 6th at City Hall. Visit First Night Austin to find out more about this year's New Years event. Photos courtesy of Keith Gaddis. If you can't view the Flash slideshow above, an alternate version appears after the jump.......

If you aren't going to the launch party tonight, you can watch the first episode of Downtown's third season tomorrow night from the comfort of your own home. For those unfamiliar with the show, KLRU's award-winning series focuses on, well, the downtown area. Topics covered in past seasons have been: Waller Creek, First Night Austin, bicycle messengers, Austin's hip-hop scene, the Austin Farmer's Market, urban density, and more. Each thirty-minute episode is made up of......

HBMG Foundation is still inviting folks to apply for the 2007 ArtSpark Festival, a twelve-week-long creative festival and competition that pits teams of theatre junkies, video game developers, and visual artists against one another to create awesome new works. At orientation, each team is given a "spark," an object which serves as the catalyst and inspiration to jumpstart the team's creative process. If you'd like to apply but can't find a team to join,......

Gallery Lombardi, having bid farewell to its warehouse on West 3rd, will present its inaugural show at the new gallery space on West 7th in a matter of weeks, but in the meantime they're hard at work on a new project with local creative "enablers" from We Manage Stuff. The endeavor is called Mobile Art Place, and it seeks to enhance our city's access to new art (and artforms) by taking them out of......

An Austinist reader left a comment in our First Night preview inquiring about the canopy of bells installed on 1st Street Bridge. "Liminal Spaces," envisioned and executed by local artist Neesha Thakkar, was meant to "represent the movement between grounded and defined states," and "create an idyllic passageway with a processional quality." Handcrafted in India and each featuring a unique ring tone, the brass bells were to be given away after First Night to......

Aerial dancers from Blue Lapis Dance performing Sally Jacques' "Angels in Our Midst" on the west-facing facade of the Radisson Hotel. All photos by Steve Hopson Thundertopia firedancers Fireworks finale Drummer Ian Deshaun Wade of the Jones Family Singers Oscar Riquelme's "Painted Dances" Luke Savisky's "'I' of Texas"......

You may have seen the storefront on 2nd St. filled with workers in coveralls, their workshop littered with pink paper and bottles. The spartan headquarters of the Pink Love Factory stands in stark contrast to the modern shops that proliferate the shopping district. You have probably wondered what the hell is going on in this place filled with bicycles, jump suits, pink construction paper and smiling artisans. Well, after consuming our weight in gelato......

First Night Austin Schedule 2-5pm Family Festival 5:30-6:30pm Grand Procession 7pm Family Finale at City Hall 7-11:30pm Evening programming Midnight Grand Finale First Night Austin takes over downtown this Sunday, kicking off the second annual festival with three hours of family-friendly activities, performances, and art installations. From hip hop freestyling to Appalachian-style clog dancing, there promises to be enough culturally-rich distractions to entertain even that obnoxious nephew of yours who'd rather stay home to......

First Night Austin Schedule 2-5pm Family Festival 5:30-6:30pm Grand Procession 7pm Family Finale at City Hall 7-11:30pm Evening programming Midnight Grand Finale First Night Austin takes over downtown this Sunday, kicking off the second annual festival with three hours of family-friendly activities, performances, and art installations. From hip hop freestyling to Appalachian-style clog dancing, there promises to be enough culturally-rich distractions to entertain even that obnoxious nephew of yours who'd rather stay home to......

First Night Austin Schedule 2-5pm Family Festival 5:30-6:30pm Grand Procession 7pm Family Finale at City Hall 7-11:30pm Evening programming Midnight Grand Finale First Night Austin takes over downtown this Sunday, kicking off the second annual festival with three hours of family-friendly activities, performances, and art installations. From hip hop freestyling to Appalachian-style clog dancing, there promises to be enough culturally-rich distractions to entertain even that obnoxious nephew of yours who'd rather stay home to......

First Night Austin Schedule 2-5pm Family Festival 5:30-6:30pm Grand Procession 7pm Family Finale at City Hall 7-11:30pm Evening programming Midnight Grand Finale First Night Austin takes over downtown this Sunday, kicking off the second annual festival with three hours of family-friendly activities, performances, and art installations. From hip hop freestyling to Appalachian-style clog dancing, there promises to be enough culturally-rich distractions to entertain even that obnoxious nephew of yours who'd rather stay home to......

Official Poster of First Night Austin 2007 by Peat Duggins After the tremendous success of last year's inaugural festival, First Night Austin returns to downtown this New Year's Eve with an all-day program full of music, art, theatre, dance, and more. Begun in Boston back in 1976 as a massive public gathering to ring in the new year through "art, ritual, and festivity," First Night events are now held all over the world, from......

If you're like us people we know, you sat glued to your TV last night for the season premiere of Bravo's Project Runway. And while this year's cast can't hold a candle to last year's hotties, you've doubtless already started picking favorites among the Season 3 designers. Take your unhealthy obsession one step further with a little design contest being held here in town, involving several thousand leftover buttons from last year's First Night Austin......

Last year, over 100,000 people attended the inaugural First Night Austin, which is a major arts festival to welcome the New Year. This year, First Night Austin 2007 will again take place on December 31, but since it is now the second annual event, we hope that it will be an even bigger party. First Night Austin announced an official call to artists for visual and performing art proposals. They will be accepting proposals in......

Austin is once again celebrating New Year's Eve with First Night, and FNA is accepting artist proposals starting this coming Monday, May 1. They're calling for "emerging and established artists with big ideas for ringing in the New Year" to put their ideas down on paper and get 'em to FNA no later than 5pm, June 12. That may seem like a long time from now, but the proposals can include a heck of......

Women & Their Work and Austin Visual Arts Association are teaming up tonight, March 7th to present Art for the People: Exploring the world of Public Art. You're invited to Women & Their Work (1710 Lavaca St) to participate in an informative and thoughtful discussion on public art. Schedule 6:00-6:30 pm ­ Artist Networking 6:30 ­ 8:00 pm ­Panel Discussion and Q&A Panelist Include: Ann Graham (Organizer of First Night Austin), Meghan Turner (Art......

The following review is from new contributor Jonathon. In modern dance, a "works-in-progress" showing is somewhere between a rough draft and a teaser – it's a sneak preview of work that'll show up later in the year as a longer, more polished product. Danceworks Laboratory, the latest works-in-progress showing from Sharir + Bustamante Danceworks, features the work of José Bustamante and two international choreographers in varying degrees of artistic readiness. Though we tried to go......

Logo and image from First Night Austin website Looking for New Year’s Eve Plans? First Night Austin is going to be a new tradition for this city, and since we like anything that supports the arts community in Austin, we are very excited about this one. Since the activities are stretching between 2PM and midnight, you can either go early before your partying begins, or end up your evening downtown for the First Night Finale.......

Want to volunteer to help transform downtown Austin into a magical mystery land full of performing and visual arts? First Night Austin is looking for people to help with the New Years Event to end all events. "First Night Austin is a public celebration of the arts that revives the ancient tradition of marking the passage of time with art, ritual, and festivity." This landmark event will take place on December 31, 2005 To......