Photograph by Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP
The Peach Drop, an Atlanta tradition celebrating New Year’s Eve, is returning to Underground Atlanta this year—but its long-term future is still uncertain. Launched in 1989 as the Atlanta version of New York City’s Times Square ball drop, the Peach Drop has, in recent years, endured a series of stops and starts that have crippled the festival’s momentum and importance. Will it survive the next chapter of Atlanta, or become yet another relic of the city’s past?
For decades, the Peach Drop was held every New Year’s Eve outside Underground Atlanta. The event routinely drew as many as 100,000 spectators, who counted down to midnight and cheered as the 800-pound fiberglass peach slid down a specially constructed, 138-foot scaffold.
But the tradition was disrupted in 2017, when Underground Atlanta was sold to South Carolina–based real estate developer WRS Inc. The festival survived a few more years, moving up to the Flatiron Building and then returning to Underground Atlanta in 2018. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms canceled the event in 2019, citing uncertainty about the location, and the following year, Covid-19 nipped group gatherings in the bud.
Pandemic shutdowns and subsequent spikes from Covid variants kept the Peach Drop off the agenda between 2020 and 2022. The event made a modest comeback to ring in 2023, drawing several thousand attendees to Underground for a show headlined by Jermaine Dupri, but was canceled again ahead of the 2024 New Year’s celebration. A spokesperson for Mayor Andre Dickens said the event money had been allocated to the city’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop instead, and called the Peach Drop “a worthy tradition in the past.”
This year, the fate of the beleaguered fruity free fall was again in limbo. But in October, the city announced a partnership with international events promoter Live Nation, which agreed to produce the event at Underground Atlanta. The City Council approved $650,000 to help Live Nation with booking performers, hosting a fireworks show, and other event logistics. The agreement is only for one year, however, leaving the long-term fate of the Peach Drop still dangling in the air.
The future of its host venue remains similarly uncertain. Lalani Ventures, which purchased Underground Atlanta in 2020, is attempting to rebrand the long-languishing downtown complex as a hot spot for nightlife and art. In addition to The Masquerade, which moved to the subterranean warren in 2016, Lalani has added several nightclubs, bars, and live music venues, and wooed artists and galleries with discounted leases. “We’re proud . . . to welcome Atlanta’s most beloved tradition, the Peach Drop, back to the property,” CEO Shaneel Lalani told the local station 11 Alive in 2022, “and we look forward to hosting this monumental event for years to come.”
Lalani Ventures’ Underground Atlanta revamp is part of a more ambitious redevelopment of downtown, as private developers and city leaders alike attempt to rebuild the district into the hub it once was. Projects include a renovation of Woodruff Park, a revival of the eight-block South Downtown neighborhood, and an enormous overhaul of the Five Points MARTA station. It’s too soon to say whether the plans for a revitalized downtown will succeed, but if the Peach Drop can hold on just a little longer, it may be celebrated as a hallmark of old Atlanta that survived to see the new one.
This article appears in our December 2024 issue.
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