COLUMBIA, S.C. — Columbia businesses are having a busy weekend as they look to celebrate the new year.
For Racheal Talbot at the Bang Back Pinball Lounge in Five Points, New Year's weekend celebrates a new year and sets the tone for 2024. She spent the day preparing for New Year's Eve festivities.
"They say whatever you're doing the night of is going to set the tone for the whole year," she said. "We're going to do a champagne toast at midnight; we're doing a tournament right now, a pinball tournament. We're going to enjoy each other in good company."
On Main Street, festivities are expected up and down the street, with bars open all night and a midnight fireworks show. Restaurants, including Smoked, The Venue, and The Grand, host a block party between Blanding and Taylor streets.
Rodrick Williams, a manager at Smoked, said this weekend is one of their busiest of the year.
"It's technically separate events, but we're kinda trying to bring back that community block party feel to the street, so we want people bouncing between parties, walking up and down the street and stuff like that," he said. "New Year's Eve is the one party that we tend to sell out like every single year."
It's a similar situation at Market on Main, where general manager Sydney Lopez said they've also sold out their ticketed New Year's event.
"It is one of our busiest nights of the whole year, so we do have all hands on deck," she said. "That's including all of our back-of-house members with the kitchen, having a full team there with all of our sous chefs, our executive chef as well. For our front-of-house staffing and front-of-house with serving, we do have a full staff with all of those."
She said that at the end of the day, the celebration is about being around the people we love and heading into 2024 on the right foot.
"Everybody is ready to start new and turn a new leaf in the new year as well," Lopez said.