After a decade of bringing visitors, residents, businesses, and community and civic leaders from diverse backgrounds together for South Carolina’s largest free New Year’s Eve party in downtown Columbia, South Carolina, Famously Hot New Year’s board of directors announces the event will not return in 2022. Famously Hot New Year had become a tradition for tens of thousands of people in the Midlands, as well as visitors from cities from Greenville to New York and beyond. Guests were drawn by the event’s national acts, but booked longer stays to enjoy the region’s welcoming, authentic culture and wide array of incredible things to do.
“It’s hard to see FHNY come to an end,” says Sam Johnson, president of the Famously Hot New Year board of directors. “For the past 10 years, we have looked forward to bringing visitors from outside of the Midlands together with locals to showcase all that the City of Columbia, Richland County and the region have to offer,” notes Johnson. “After nine years of hosting phenomenal live, in-person events with national acts including George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, The Wallflowers, Kool & the Gang, The O’Jays, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Trombone Shorty and Orleans Ave, Sister Hazel, Elle King, En Vogue, and Salt-N-Pepa, as well as a virtual event in 2020 featuring Arrested Development and Hootie & the Blowfish, and playing it “famously safe” by forgoing the event in 2021 due to COVID-19, we encourage visitors and locals alike to create new traditions around the holiday that include enjoying all that our vibrant region has to offer.”
Famously Hot New Year was started in 2011 as an idea nurtured by Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin. Sponsors such as the City of Columbia, Richland County, and private partners including BlueCross BlueShield of SC, Aflac, WLTX, Alpha Media, Dominion Energy, Pepsi of the Carolinas, Segra, and more enhanced the well-being of our community through their support over the last decade.
Visitors and locals are encouraged to make plans to enjoy the Columbia region’s year-round amenities, from outdoor recreation to nationally-ranked attractions, walkable entertainment districts, charming hotels and an international, chef-driven restaurant scene.
About Famously Hot New Year
Over the past decade, Famously Hot New Year had grown to become South Carolina’s largest New Year’s Eve celebration, with a free, evening-length concert by a national headliner and the biggest NYE fireworks display in South Carolina, adjacent to the historic S.C. State House in downtown Columbia, S.C. Famously Hot New Year gathered diverse communities to enjoy the free concert and fireworks; regional food vendors; plentiful cash bars with beer, wine and bubbly; a festival atmosphere and more in the Real Southern Hot Spot. Famously Hot New Year had operated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization since 2016.
