ATLANTA — A major New Year's Eve festivity in Atlanta will go dark this year as the city retools its presentation.
During an interview with Ryan Cameron Uncensored on Majic 107.5/97.5 on Tuesday, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms confirmed that the Peach Drop will be on hiatus until at least next year.
"We want to make sure we have an opportunity to present the Peach Drop in a way that is befitting our city," Mayor Bottoms said. "So we are going to take a break, re-evaluate, reexamine the location and how we plan it out."
The Peach Drop has become one of the more well-known New Year's Eve festivities in the Southeast over the years - but has also been on the bubble before.
The New Year's Eve 2016 event was almost canceled when the Underground Atlanta venue was being sold for redevelopment. However, then-Mayor Kasim Reed had the closing of the center put off to allow for the Peach Drop to happen.
Even then, however, the drop was facing an uncertain future. The next year, the event moved to Woodruff Park before returning to Underground Atlanta to ring in 2019.
"When it comes back, I promise you, it will be bigger and better," Mayor Bottoms said.
She added that the decision to cancel the celebration came in the first few days of November.
"The decision was really driven by - we had some location challenges with it being held at Underground because the city does not own Underground," Bottoms said. "And the new owners have been great in working with us but we were having some challenges there."
She added that weather doesn't always cooperate causing issues.
"To me, last year, although it was great to be there and the crowd was great, it felt like an afterthought event rather than a premier event," Mayor Bottoms said.
She used her son's experience with the Popeyes chicken sandwich to describe it.
"He said it tasted rushed," Bottoms said. "No shade to Popeyes, that's how my 9-year-old [described it]."
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