Family friendly fun planned

The Merchants of Seaside will present the 6th Annual Countdown Seaside: A New Year’s Eve Celebration to welcome in 2014. On Dec. 31, everyone is invited to experience a big family-friendly party in SEASIDE^® featuring live entertainment, kid’s art projects, street performers and fireworks over the Gulf of Mexico. Festivities begin at 6 p.m. and last until the last firework lights up the sky.

Especially for the kids, Abrakadoodle will be on hand from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. offering unique art projects as part of the New Year’s Eve Celebration. There is no cost to participate in the projects, which include making celebratory noisemakers, as well as a time capsule for families to place New Year’s wishes and resolutions. SEASIDE^® will also have face painters, balloon sculptors, stilt walkers, jugglers and street magicians to get both the young and young-at-heart in the festive spirit.

Spectators will be entertained in the final hours of 2013 by a variety of singers/ songwriters ranging from Today’s Country to Pop Rock. Headliner Mockingbird Sun takes the amphitheater stage at 10:30 p.m. to help ring in the New Year with a blend of traditional country and alternative rock and Texas country in the spirit of Pat Green, Jack Ingram and Eli Young Band.

The celebration kicks off at 6 p.m. with a performance by Nashville-based Daniel Ellsworth and The Great Lakes. They have performed at the CMA Music Festival, the Country Throwdown tour, the Georgia National Fair, the 30A Songwriters Festival, Folk Alliance, and on WSM Radio’s “Coffee, Country & Cody.”

At the stroke of midnight, the townwill light up the skies over the Gulf of Mexico and welcome 2014 with its exciting fireworks display from a barge in front of Bud & Alley’s—a South Walton tradition. Colorful bursts of light will be visible from the beach, as well as in the SEASIDE  Amphitheater in Central Square. A synchronized music soundtrack will be simulcast in the Amphitheater, as well as on 30A Radio (30ARadio.org or 107.1FM).