"There are a lot of people in town and I thought there would be a lot of long lines, but with so many venues to choose from, there is not much waiting at all," said Mary Fleming of Northampton.
At those venues were a variety of musical and dance performances, comedy, puppet shows, storytelling and balloon art.
The festivities began at noon with a circus performance at the Northampton Center For the Arts, which was soon interrupted by a fire alarm that sent the audience out of the building for 10 minutes.
"According to the Fire Department, it was just a faulty smoke detector that had gone off," said Penny Burke, executive director of the center which produces First Night.
Burke said despite that glitch, the rest of the event went smoothly.
"We put out 10,000 buttons and looking at what was left, it appears that most of them went out," Burke said. "It looks like we had a great night, but we won't have the exact figures until next week. Overall, it was a very pleasant event."
Devin Koller, his wife Erin, daughter Anna, 5, and son Oliver, 2, of Northampton didn't let that mar their impression of "Celebration Circus" presented by SHOW Circus Studio.
"It was amazing!," Koller said. "They performed impressive acrobatic flips and beautiful choreography. It was a very nice display of physical arts. I imagine it is like what Cirque du Soleil does, really dramatic, very graceful and a lot of color."
Ellen Clegg then led 20 members of the Off Beat Drummers on a parade through downtown followed by a silken-winged Maya Apfelbaum on stilts, the hula hoop group Hooping Harmony, and a variety of parents and children. valentines flowers her
At Smith College, the Young at Heart Chorus drew a nearly capacity crowd to the 2,000-seat John M. Greene Hall as it performed a variety of pop, blues, and disco tunes. Patricia Booth and John Rinehart rocked the house as they belted out "What Good Am I Without You?" made popular by Marvin Gaye and Kim Weston, and Janice St. Laurence received a standing ovation after her performance of "Ripple."
Ted and Linda Robison came from California to visit their daughter Stacy Robison in Northampton.
"We saw the Young at Heart movie and they are so uplifting and so inspiring that we had to see them when we came to First Night. This was the only venue that we told Stacy we absolutely had to see," Linda Robison said.
At St. John's Episcopal Church, Katherine First and Last Night's Fun performed rousing Celtic tunes. The toe-tapping was audible as the band played traditional jigs and reels to a large crowd of adults and children.
After inviting the audience to dance, it wasn't long before young Irish step dancer Emma Conrad-Rooney of Amherst leaped from her seat and danced a few jigs to the joy of the crowd.
"The first time I ever saw step dancing was at the Academy of Music during a First Night celebration. I thought it was so cool, I found a school and started taking lessons," said Conrad-Rooney who has been dancing for five years with the Celtic Heels School of Irish Dance in Greenfield.
Earlier, the Pioneer Valley Gay Men's Chorus packed St. John's.
"We tried to get in, but there was no more room left, even to stand," said Evan Jameson of Hartford, Conn.
At the First Churches, The Nields performed a concert for parents and children who danced, mimed and sang along with the duo.
"I thought they were really good," said 11-year old Meg Rock of Middlefield. "I think they had very nice voices and I liked singing When the 'Saints Go Marching In.'"
Sheldon Ross and his wife Diane of Amherst had not been to a First Night celebration since they had children.
"We used to come to this at night before we had kids but we have never done this part (during the afternoon) before," said Sheldon Ross. "It's been nice. We saw John Porcino the story-teller who was great, the Yo-Yo show, which was amazing, and Paint Box Theatre doing Aesop's fables was very good. Now we are staying for the fireworks then heading home."
Just before 6 p.m. the streets filled with people waiting to see the fireworks. Cheers rang out as the explosions of light and color lit up the sky.
"That was a fabulous display! Very psychedelic. I liked that a lot," Lore Detenber of Northampton said.
For many families with youngsters, the fireworks marked the end of the night, while others planned to stay for the evening's entertainment and to the traditional First Night ball-raising at midnight at the Hotel Northampton to ring in 2012.
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