The Town of Orangeville’s “First Night” celebration Sunday night promises to have it all, including pyrotechnics at 9 p.m. and midnight, ice sculptures, horse-drawn wagon rides, face painting, Elias on Fire, Al the Pal children’s entertainer, Eric Nagler, Danny Marks and lots of entertainment, both indoors and outdoors.

Most of the events will take place on Broadway or on the outdoor stage on Second Street, but there will also be a line-up of entertainment on stage in the Opera House. The event starts at 7 p.m.

Some artists will be sculpting some frosty works of art out of slabs of ice.

Tim Braithwaite, a resident of Shelburne, plans to be back this year to create something new. He has won several awards at the ice sculpture competition at Nathan Phillips Square in the past.

Ray Dolson of Brampton, who is originally from the Orangeville area, will also be back to participate in the ice sculpture demonstration.

They will be joined by two artists — Murray Berger of Orangeville and Don Miller of Melancthon township — who have created their first tree sculptures in Orangeville this past summer and who are now going to turn their minds and tools to creating ice sculptures.

Throughout most of the evening (7-11:45 p.m.), horsedrawn wagon rides will be offered in the downtown area by Glen Simpson who will bring two teams of Belgians to the event.

There will also be face painting inside the Town Hall and fireeater Elias Repka, known as Elias On Fire, will be performing on the street throughout the evening.

Outdoor Stage

The Danny Marks Rock & Roll Trio will headline the outdoor show, on a stage on Second Street, just north of Broadway. The popular trio will take to the outdoor stage at 11 p.m. and perform until 12:15 a.m.

Danny Marks is well known as the man of a million songs from CBC Radio where he stars on the Hum Line and as the host of the popular bluz.fm radio programme on jazz.fm91 Toronto every Saturday night. He helped form Edward Bear, a Juno Award winning group that had international hits with “You, Me and Mexico” and “Last Song”.

Truth & Consequences (the Canada Day Talent Contest winner) will perform from 7:15-7:45 p.m.

Blues band Trouble & Strife, consisting of Bruce Ley, Larry Kurtz, Michael Ley, Greg Smith and Maureen Brown, always proves popular and is returning for a third engagement at Orangeville’s First Night celebration, and will be on stage at 8 p.m. Gary Heaslip will perform on the outdoor stage at 9 p.m. and Eric Nagler For Adults is scheduled for 10 p.m.

Opera House Stage Indoors, on the Opera House stage, the entertainment will kick off at 7:30 p.m. with TOYS (Theatre Orangeville Youth Singers) and the Mark DuBois Singers at 7:45 p.m. Orangeville’s Keith Hunter will bring his magic to the stage at 8:15 p.m. Lorraine McDonald will perform from 9:15-10:05 p.m. and then the popular Bob’s Banjo Band will take to the stage from 10:10-11:10 p.m.

For those who want to get active, and start celebrating earlier in the evening, there will be free skating at the Tony Rose Memorial Sports Centre from 5-8 p.m.

“It is going to be a festive and fun-filled evening for everyone to greet the new year,” says Orangeville Councillor Sylvia Bradley, who’s also a First Night Committee member.