Discovery Lab Hosts Annual 'Noon Year's Eve' As Family-Friendly Alternative To Staying Up Late

Discovery Lab is ringing in the New Year in a big way.

The museum is having its annual "Noon Year's Eve" on Sunday, December 31st from 9:30 to noon. At noon, 20,000 balloons will drop from the ceiling to welcome 2024.

Volunteers started blowing up the balloons on Thursday and will spend the next three days finishing it up.

Chip Lindsey, Director of Education of Discovery Lab, said the family-friendly event is a great alternative to staying up until midnight.

"You know you are going to come here and maybe learn something that you did not know already, but also that you can celebrate New Year's Eve at a reasonable hour, at the stroke of noon as opposed to midnight," he added.

Instead of fireworks, the celebration will feature a science experiment that uses bubbles and hydrogen.

"Hydrogen, which we have here at Discovery Lab, is the simplest element," Lindsey continued, saying, "It is one proton and one electron, it is a gas, and it is flammable."

By putting the gas into the soap and water mixture, bubbles form. Lindsey then sets the bubbles on fire using a lighter, creating a unique reaction.

"We really like to take ordinary materials and use them in extraordinary ways," he said. "There is nothing more ordinary than soap, water, and making bubbles, which are beautiful and lovely, but taking it to that next level and using it in an unusual way with a gas that we do not necessarily have at home makes it even more fun and interesting."

Noon Year's Eve is sold out for this year, but tickets go on sale each year in November.