TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The New Year celebrations started early this afternoon on the west side at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum’s ‘Noon Year’s Eve’ party.
Instead of the ball drop as you see in Times Square or the taco drop here in downtown Tucson, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum had a dinosaur egg drop to help ring in the new year.
“It (dinosaur egg) just came with confetti, it was so cool,” 11-year-old Sophie Leyva said after watching the dinosaur egg drop.
She and her family were among the large crowd at the museum. While Leyva says she plans to stay up until midnight to celebrate the new year, that isn’t the case for everyone.
The museum’s marketing and media manager, Tianna Holder, explained that this event tries to help with that. The museum’s party ran from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“It’s an opportunity for families, especially younger kids to come celebrate the new year, but still make their bedtime,” Holder said.
The kids danced the afternoon away, completed arts and crafts projects, played games, and got their faces painted. However, the star of the show was the dinosaurs.
“They are just a lot of huge dino fans, in children of Southern Arizona,” Holder said.
The museum recently unveiled a new temporary exhibit,“Dinos in the Desert.” It features 18 different dinosaurs.
“They move and they make sounds and they’re very life-like…So to go with this new exhibit, Dinos in the Desert, we thought obviously ‘Noon Year’s Eve’ has to be dino-themed, there was really no other option,” Holder said.
While the New Year celebration is over, the dinosaur exhibit runs through April and is included in general admission to the museum.
——
Madison Thomas joined KGUN 9 in July of 2023 as a multimedia journalist. She graduated from Arizona State University in May of 2023 with a degree in journalism and mass communication. She has lived in Arizona her entire life and grew up in Douglas. Madison is thrilled to share the stories from the community she grew up in. Share your story ideas and important issues with Madison by emailing madison.thomas@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
