BEVERLY - About 2,000 obviously frozen but apparently happy people celebrated the new year early last night in downtown Beverly.
The crowd, mostly families with young children, roamed a Cabot Street closed to traffic from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. for the city's 14th annual New Year's celebration.
Beverly's New Year 2008, sponsored by Beverly Main Streets, included 13 events at seven indoor locations, as well as outdoor activities such as a suitcase-tossing contest and a parade through Cabot Street with people dressed in giant papier mache puppet costumes, serenaded by live music from Barrence Whitfield and the Savages.
First-year Main Streets director Gin Wallace said organizers sold almost all of the 1,500 badges, at $5 a pop, for the indoor events. The outdoor events were free.
"This was my first one, but everybody's raving and saying it was the best one ever," Wallace said. "We had more street performers this year, like the fire juggler, and that made a difference."
The ceremonial New Year's countdown came at 7 p.m., when youngsters gathered in front of the Beverly National Bank to catch 400 beach balls tossed from the second-story windows.
