PORT TOWNSEND — It’s as if the people sing the fireworks into the air.
Just before 9 p.m. this coming Wednesday, New Year’s Eve, the PT Songlines choir will be in full voice.
And they’ll be coming out of the Cotton Building onto Water Street for the culmination of Port Townsend’s First Night celebration: a pyrotechnic display to welcome in 2015.
Yes, the hour is early, but “we get that jump-start on the rest of the West Coast,” said Bill Tennent, one of First Night’s main promoters.
Tennent is also executive director of the Jefferson County Historical Society, whose Jefferson Art & History Museum is the hub for New Year’s Eve activities — the biggest celebration on the eve of the new year on the North Olympic Peninsula.
At and around the museum at old City Hall at Water and Madison streets, First Night brings live music, square and line dancing, children’s games, crafts and other festivity from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. Wednesday.
While the event is free, donations of $5 per person or $10 per family are encouraged, and benefit the museum and other society programs.
“We give a pass to everybody who asks for one,” said Tennent, while those who donate are entered into drawings for $100 gift certificates at the museum’s book-rich gift shop.
Along with the many First Night musicians, the PT Songlines members “get everybody in a good, spiritual mood for the new year,” Tennent said.
“They march out into the street,” said Tennent, just in time for the fireworks display, a tradition since Dr. David Chuljian, a local dentist, first offered the show eight years ago.
Chuljian launches his comets and shells from Memorial Athletic Field: some $1,100 worth, which he has donates — and volunteers to set up and shoot off.
“I’m a licensed pyro,” quipped Chuljian, meaning he’s certified as a pyrotechnician.
He got that license over a decade ago after learning the ropes from his father, the late Dr. Chuck Chuljian. Both Chuljians chose dentistry as their professions and fireworks as their avocations.
Intertwined with Chuljian’s display Wednesday night is the raising of Thaddeus Jurczynski’s lighted anchor.
A Chimacum-based sculptor, Jurczynski fashions the big sailing symbol especially for New Year’s Eve here.
“He told me he’s planning to do something different to it,” said Tennent, “though I don’t know what that means” yet.
Let’s rewind just a little, back to the downtown attractions. At venues around Water Street, there will be art, music, stories and movies, including:
■ Art projects, film shorts courtesy of the Port Townsend Film Institute and a big board where people can post their wishes for the new year will await at the Jefferson County Museum of Art & History inside City Hall, 540 Water St.
■ Key City Public Theatre will bring children’s storytelling to the City Hall Council Chambers.
■ Thaddeus Jurczynski will present a short play, “St. George and the Dragon,” all evening inside the museum.
■ Short, dramatic readings will take place at the Key City Playhouse, 419 Washington St.
■ The band Airstream Traveler will play at Elevated Ice Cream Co., 631 Water St.
■ Square, line and contra dancing will fill the Pope Marine Building, 603 Water St.
■ Hands-on art projects will take place at Jefferson Community School, 280 Quincy St.
■ DJ Mollywog will dish up music at the Boiler Room, 711 Water St.
■ At the Cotton Building, 607 Water St., The Twins, a folk duo, will play music from 6 p.m. until 7:15 p.m., and then PT Songlines will gather for more singing from 7:30 p.m. up until fireworks time.
■ The raising of the lighted anchor and the launching of First Night fireworks are set for 9 p.m. from Memorial Athletic Field, 550 Washington St.
The show is short, but it’s all finale — “no gaps,” Tennent said.
“To have somebody volunteer to do [the fireworks] is amazing,” he added of Chuljian.
There’s a variable, however, that could halt the display.
“The only reason it might not happen is if it’s really windy,” Tennent said.
But so far, First Night’s fireworks have never had to be scrubbed.
Information about the event and its presenters awaits on the Jefferson County Historical Society website, www.JCHSMuseum.org, and at 360-385-1003.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
