A crowd gathered at the corner of Penn Avenue and Seventh Street early Saturday evening in anticipation of the kids’ fireworks display, kicking off 2023 First Night, Pittsburgh’s annual celebration. The event, sponsored by Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and Highmark, has been running for 29 years.
Nearby, Rich Bubin, the founder of Ice Creations, had built an ice maze, complete with more than 200 blocks of ice, protected against the 56-degree weather inside of a tent. He’s been sculpting ice for 41 years.
“After going through such trying times with COVID and other things, we wanted to make it an experience for people to smile and have hope,” he said, explaining that the intention of the ice maze was “a journey of hope for the future.”
Mr. Bubin carved an entire corner dedicated to the late Steeler star Franco Harris, as well as penguin and snowman statues that contained holes for kids to stick their faces through for photo opportunities.
A trip through the maze led to an open space with a huge ice throne.
“One of the things that keeps me doing this after 40 years is the smiles and the happiness on people’s faces after they walk through it,” said Mr. Bubin. “It’s nice to create positive things that bring up people’s spirits.”
Aria, 8, was particularly excited about the ice maze and said, with chuckles from her father, Gary Kohanbash, of Squirrel Hill, that her New Year’s resolution was “to get in less trouble.”
So she waited patiently while her brother, Zane, 3, wielded their shared light saber. Their mother is out of the country for two weeks visiting family in Israel, so their father wanted something fun to take them to. The kids’ faces lit up at the prospect of staying up until midnight.
Another family put on matching reflective party hats and sparkling gold leis while waiting for the fireworks to start. Kevin Maurer, of Upper St. Clair, whose idea it was to dress up, was pleased by the warmer weather and the end of intermittent rainfall.
“I’m so glad it’s not freezing like it was on Christmas,” a passerby said.
“I was trying to be festive,” Mr. Maurer said of the hats and leis. “We love the sights and sounds of First Night. We try to do it every year.”
Fragrant odors of barbecue smoke wafted through the crowd, coming from R&G’s SmokeShack, a food truck that had set up just outside the ice maze.
Richard Karels, 42, of Bethel Park, the “R” in the name, said this was a “good way to cap off the year.”
He and his business partner, Gino Perella, 48, of North Fayette, have been working in the restaurant industry for about 30 years. They unveiled the truck on July 4, 2021, and participated in First Night last year.
“The kids were well-behaved, everyone mingled together, it was a lot of fun,” said Mr. Perella.
This year he said he and his partner would be “hopeless romantics” about the turnout and prayed for the rain to stop (it did). Being so new in food trucks, Mr. Perella said they were still figuring out what works but were “starting to find a pattern, growing and getting better.”
“We get to have fun doing what we do.”
About 6:10 p.m., the fireworks started with a series of bangs echoing off the tall buildings near The Benedum Center for the Performing Arts. The crowd cheered, and for a brief five minutes, all eyes gazed upward in collective wonderment.
The New Year was nigh.
First Published: January 1, 2023, 2:09 a.m.
