Carwardine's In-Park New Years Day Event

Carwardine's In-Park New Years Day Event was a tradition started by Carwardine Parks on December 31st, 1991, before 1991, the parks were often either closed on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, or close way before midnight.

History
The 2000 New Years event was different, as most of the rides (save for rides that rely on little-to-no electricity, ala older rides or some kiddie rides) closed early at 10:00 PM due to the rumored Y2K bug.

Extended Ride Time
At parks that are open for New Year celebrations, various rides are open until 1:00 AM, an hour after the year has started.

Carwardine Colony

 * Carousel/Christmas Carousel
 * Garfield's Feline Fury/Garfield's Christmas Craze
 * Jr. Cyclone
 * Nightmare: The Scream Machine/Nightmare: Frozen Shut
 * Monstar/Krampus
 * Sagwa's Rickshaw Run

WWE/Raw/SmackDown/NXT Live - Year's-End Brawl
Select parks host a WWE Live event as part of the festivities, either solely using wrestlers from a single brand's roster or a mix of wrestlers from all three brands' rosters (Raw, SmackDown and NXT) at the same time (Carwardine Colony has had a SmackDown-only live event in recent years, while Carwardine's Great America has had a NXT-only live event).

Mario's "Ball Drop"
At Carwardine's Great America over a barren section on Northern Cross, and broadcast live to the other parks in the chain, Mario drops a disco ball off the Northern Cross maintenance gondola, onto the ground, shattering it in the process, with fireworks going off in time with the ball smashing upon impact. This was based on a kid who said to Chris Carwardine that his favorite part of New Year's was "watching the Times Square disco ball getting dropped and smashed", which, in reality, the Times Square ball drop ball isn't technically a disco ball, and it's on a pole and thus, doesn't get destroyed (something else to note is that said pole is on the roof of a building), but that didn't stop Chris Carwardine from making this a reality every year at Carwardine's Great America.

Out with a Bang Fireworks Display
The display begins at all participating outdoor theme parks just after the Disco Ball hits the ground at Great America. The display is usually produced by either or, depending on the park.