From the Gainesville Sun
By Erin Everhart
Correspondent

You don’t have to go all the way to Times Square for a downtown New Year’s Eve celebration that you’ll be talking about through the next year. You just have to make it to the Bo Diddley Community Plaza.

The city of Gainesville’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs is back to round out 2010 with Downtown Countdown, its free, New Year’s Eve celebration featuring Beatles tribute band, The Impostors, and the chamber blues-rock duo, Velveeta Underground.

“You get out with a group of citizens together to be out in a public place, like New York, but on a much smaller level of course,” says David Ballard, events coordinator for the city of Gainesville. “They come down here, they meet friends and meet new folks. That’s what people do.”

Downtown Countdown is in its third consecutive year, but it’s been a part of the community much longer than that. Due to budget issues and the lack of someone able to coordinate the event, it was canceled for New Year’s Eve 2007.

Ballard saw that people missed the event, even if he didn’t get the obligatory angry phone calls.

With free events, it’s hard to estimate the number of people that could come, leaving Ballard and his team prepping for 1,000 or 3,000 celebrators, depending on the weather for the evening. But armed with free noisemakers, the people as well as local restaurants and clubs in the area all take part in the New Year’s Eve celebration, making it a real party at the plaza.

To add to the event’s tradition and party atmosphere, Ballard brought back The Imposters for their second appearance at Downtown Countdown.

“The Beatles are pretty popular across the board,” Ballard says. “Their music never goes out of style.”

Ron Thomas, bass player and a founding member of The Impostors, says the group had such a great time last year that it didn’t hesitate to play again when asked.

“Everyone seemed to enjoying rockin’ in the New Year,” Thomas says. “That’s what we hope to do again this year.”

The band plans to perform a lot of new songs this year, including such Beatles tunes as “Eight Days A Week” and “What Goes On.”

“The Beatles wrote so many songs that they make us easy to do something fresh,” Thomas says.

They’ll also be making a classic rock night of it, performing some tunes by Jimi Hendrix and Buffalo Springfield as well.

For a Beatles tribute band, 2010 was a notable year, marking the would-be 70th birthday as well as the 30th anniversary of the death of John Lennon.

“We try to keep it a celebration,” Thomas said. “It’s certainly sad to remember we lost him, but it’s good play his music again and keep it alive.”