Exclusive | New Year’s Eve never gets old for the ‘confetti king’ of Times Square — he’s still an emotional wreck at midnight after 3 decades on job

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One minute earlier than midnight on New 12 months’s Eve, excessive above road stage, Treb Heining intently screens a digital clock beneath the Waterford crystal ball towering over Occasions Sq., and shortly the gang loudly joins collectively in a remaining countdown refrain.

“ … 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 …”

By the point fireworks blast off on the hour and “Auld Lang Syne” echoes from forty second to 59th streets and Sixth to Eighth avenues, “confetti king” Heining has already given a fast radio command — “Go confetti!” — to crew leaders in control of 100-plus volunteers scattered round seven buildings surrounding Occasions Sq..

Treb Heining has been overseeing the New 12 months’s Eve confetti blizzard for greater than 30 years and considers it a giant “honor” to take action. Stefan Jeremiah for NY Submit

Confetti engulfs Occasions Sq. revelers as midnight hits on Jan. 1, 2025. WireImage

As hundreds dance and cheer, packed shoulder-to-shoulder at road stage, and {couples} (and maybe strangers) passionately kiss, Heining joins the volunteers in hoisting big handfuls of confetti into the air, one bunch after one other, after one other. The 2-inch-square items of paper rapidly engulf the realm in a vibrant, fluttering blizzard, upstaging the ball drop for these on the road beneath and turning a number of Midtown blocks into the biggest, most colourful snow globe on Earth.

Now in his third decade of orchestrating the beautiful spectacle, Heining — who turns 72 on Jan. 18 — says the expertise by no means will get outdated.

“Yearly on New 12 months’s at midnight, I cry. It's an emotional, fantastic factor for me yearly, you realize?” Heining lately informed The Submit in a video name from his longtime enterprise, Glasshouse Balloon Co. in California.

“My grandkids have gotten me large shirts that say ‘cry child’ on them as a result of I positively … ” he continued earlier than pausing briefly because the confession caught in his throat. “I put on my feelings on my sleeve.”

Heining walks by way of the Occasions Sq. space on Monday after arriving on Dec. 26. Stefan Jeremiah for NY Submit

Heining talks with a crew member delivering bins of confetti and balloons on Monday for the Dec. 31 celebration. Stefan Jeremiah for NY Submit

Heining poses for a portrait with some inflatables in Occasions Sq. in 2012. Zandy Mangold

Bathed within the lights of Occasions Sq., Heining stands on a balcony overlooking celebrants on a earlier New 12 months’s Eve. Courtesy Treb Heining

The sometimes upbeat Heining, together with his broadcast-ready voice and signature purple glasses, launched town’s first Occasions Sq. confetti barrage on New 12 months’s Eve, Dec. 31, 1992, after practically 20 years working pioneering, large-scale balloon companies since 1979.

Each his routine and his feelings hardly ever waver, he says, whether or not it consists of partaking with dozens of volunteers — some repeat, some newcomers — throughout a 7 p.m. “confetti dispersal engineer orientation,” or warding off anxiousness because the clock ticks nearer to midnight.

“I'm fully nervous at 11:50 after I’m pacing up and down on my setback with a walkie-talkie, prepared to offer the cue. It by no means adjustments,” he informed The Submit. “It’s a whole honor to have the job, to be the gatekeeper for therefore many individuals, to be part of one thing that’s so wonderful, that goes out all over the world, for everyone to see, you realize? It’s an enormous honor.”

He’s come a great distance from filling and promoting balloons at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, at age 15. Submit-college, he segued into gross sales and manufacturing work for Well-known Amos cookies earlier than being satisfied by entrepreneur David Klein — who created the Jelly Stomach sweet line and with whom he's nonetheless “shut buddies” — to harness his Disney roots and kind his personal balloon firm. Since then, he has staged balloon drops and huge shows for 18 Tremendous Bowls, three Olympic Video games and lots of Republican and Democratic nationwide conventions.

Heining created a spectacular balloon presentation for the opening ceremony on the XXIII Olympic Video games in 1984. Getty Pictures

Heining’s firm creates balloon drops for the Democratic and Republican nationwide conventions, together with the RNC occasion in 2012 (above). CQ-Roll Name, Inc through Getty Pictures

Balloons, created by Glasshouse Balloon Co., drop over attendees at the newest RNC gathering in Milwaukee in July 2024. Getty Pictures

His annual New 12 months’s Eve gig consists of wrangling upwards of three,000 kilos of confetti — packed into 75 bins of about 45 kilos every — which might be launched from constructing home windows and setbacks, together with on the Marriott Resort, the previous Bertelsmann Constructing at 1540 Broadway, and the Minskoff Theatre, the place “The Lion King” performs.

Hundreds of the tiny slips of paper embody scrawled messages, solicited on-line and through a Wishing Wall in Occasions Sq., with writers searching for to “get skinny,” purchase “a brand new automotive” or just “fall in love.”

Heining was particularly touched by one message he observed a number of years in the past that learn, “I want that my mother’s most cancers goes away” — and included a telephone quantity.

The “confetti king” has amassed a major assortment of New 12 months’s Eve credentials. Courtesy Treb Heining

About 3,000 kilos of confetti are dropped over Occasions Sq. yearly. Getty Pictures

A lady takes a photograph whereas mendacity in confetti in Occasions Sq. on Jan. 1, 2024. WireImage

He and a volunteer referred to as, and Heining launched himself, telling the girl on the opposite finish — he nonetheless doesn’t know if it may very well be the mother or daughter — that their message can be launched over Occasions Sq. that night time.

“I’m ready for them to say one thing, they usually’re silenced, you realize?” he recalled. “They usually’re sobbing on the opposite finish of the telephone. Sobbing. And she or he ultimately mentioned, ‘Thanks a lot.’ And it was simply … It was fantastic,” he continued, choking up.

“The message factor is so, so wonderful, as a result of a few of them are written by youngsters, they usually’re actually rudimentary, and different ones are very touching. And it makes you notice, as a human being, how lucky all of us are, as a result of so many individuals are carrying such a load.”

He’s additionally been moved by extra direct, face-to-face connections with many “dispersal” volunteers, who come from faraway nations together with Russia, Sweden, Norway, England, Australia and New Zealand.

Heining was all smiles standing behind the signal that might signify the arrival of 2015 in Occasions Sq. a decade in the past. Courtesy Treb Heining

“Confetti king” Heining speaks right into a walkie-talkie earlier than New 12 months’s Eve 2000. Courtesy Treb Heining

“Through the years, boy, I do know we’ve coated the globe,” he mentioned.

However one encounter specifically from simply two years in the past can be among the many many who persist with him.

Whereas passing by way of the foyer of Midtown’s Renaissance Resort for a gathering simply days earlier than the brand new yr, he encountered a “fantastic” household of holiday makers from Germany — husband, spouse and two daughters — who had no explicit plans for the large night time.

Heining informed their shocked tour information to counsel they be part of the confetti crew — they usually did.

“The confetti goes off that yr. It was spectacular, as common,” he remembered, with the visiting foursome becoming a member of in to disperse the confetti blizzard.

“The spouse comes over to me, in a phenomenal lengthy coat — as a result of they’re from Germany, they know the right way to gown heat and all that stuff — and she or he offers me this large hug,” mentioned Heining, his voice once more beginning to catch. “And it bought to the purpose, you realize, the place you wish to let go and all the pieces. She didn’t let go.

“And she or he’s hanging on to me, and she or he whispers in my ear, ‘That is the best New 12 months’s we’ve ever had in our lives.’”

Heining offers a giant hug to a employee throughout Monday’s confetti supply. Stefan Jeremiah for NY Submit

It’s a type of heartwarming moments “which might be exhausting for me to speak about,” he mentioned.

“Come on — stuff like that stays with you endlessly, you realize?”

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Exclusive | New Year’s Eve never gets old for the ‘confetti king’ of Times Square — he’s still an emotional wreck at midnight after 3 decades on job

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