The Rotary Club of Warren will light up Courthouse Square for its second Opening Night celebration.

The New Year’s Eve event will do double duty this year by marking Warren’s 225th birthday.

Last year, the Warren Rotary brought back the family-friendly event, which had been a tradition in downtown Warren from 1988 until 2002.

Patti Augustine, who is co-chair of the event with Julia Wetstein, said the response to the first year was overwhelmingly positive, but some changes are planned for 2023.

The biggest is dropping the fireworks display that closed last year’s event.

“Most of the people weren’t there at the end, and there’s a lot who don’t like them because of their animals,” she said.

Taking its place is an elaborate sound-and-light show that will be featured throughout the evening.

DJ Tom Angelo is creating a 20-minute soundtrack of songs, ranging from the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s “Messiah” to The Beatles, that will accompany the light show that will be projected on the Trumbull County Courthouse.

“The best way to describe it is the lights are going to dance to the music,” Angelo said. “This will be designed to evoke memories over all of these years.”

Angelo has been working on the project since mid summer.

“It’s been fun putting this together,” he said. “I think music is probably the most ubiquitous language that crosses and forms of language, all forms of religion, all forms of culture. It’s the one universal media that all folks react to. When we think about the special moments in our lives, usually in some way they’re encapsulated in a song — first dance, first date, wedding, when your first child was born. You remember what was playing on the radio at that time.”

Augustine said the Rotary spent $10,000 on the system, which can be expanded in the future. The Rotary also could make it available to other organizations for their events to recoup some of the cost.

With the help of generous sponsorship donations from Diane Sauer Chevrolet and John Perdue with McDonald’s restaurant, this year’s event already is in the black, even with those initial costs, she said.

The light show will kick off the event at 6 p.m. Dec. 31, and Angelo said it will be repeated at the top of each hour. Angelo will be DJing on the Square throughout the evening.

This year’s Opening Night will run from 6 to 9 p.m. instead of 7 to 10 p.m. The time shift was made to make it more accessible to families with younger children, and it also will allow adults to enjoy other New Year’s Eve activities later in the evening.

Some acts will be returning from 2022, including the classic rock cover band Speed Limit, a string quartet featuring members of the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra and comedian / magician Eric Thompson.

“We’re trying not to repeat a whole lot, but everybody liked him,” Augustine said of Thompson. “And the philharmonic strings at the Upton House, they were jammed the whole time.”

A tour of the Trumbull County Courthouse also will be offered.

“We weren’t sure about that last year, but we had over 250 attend it,” Augustinte said.

Among the new acts this year is the Christian group Chosen Vessel and a Senior Showcase. Children’s activities are planned at the SCOPE Center, where kids will be able to make birthday cards for Warren that will be displayed.

The Rotary also will double the number of fire pits in Courthouse Square during the event, and attendees can purchase raffle tickets for a chance to win one of the fire pits after the event.

If you go …

WHAT: Rotary Club of Warren’s second Opening Night and Warren’s 225th birthday

WHEN: 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 31

WHERE: Courthouse Square and other downtown locations

HOW MUCH: $10 for those 10 and older and $5 for children 9 and younger. Tickets are available online at www.warrenroatary.org/tickets and can be purchased the day of the event at the Warren log cabin.