Tempe bar owners: The New Year's Eve block party is NOT canceled

The bar and restaurant owners of Tempe's Mill Avenue have a message for would-be New Year's Eve revelers: The party is still right here.

Officials with the Downtown Tempe Authority confirmed this week that the celebration is being "scaled back," citing a lack of sponsorship and declining attendance for the decision.

What that means is there will be no main stage with live performances. It also means there will be no entrance fee to get onto Mill Avenue.

Not much else will be different, said Lori Foster, director of business relations at Downtown Tempe Authority. As in years past, Mill Avenue will still be closed off to vehicular traffic from Third Street to University Drive, bars and restaurants will host events, and there will be food trucks for late-night dining, Foster said.

"Bars and restaurants will still be hosting New Year's Eve parties on their own premises," Foster said. "The block party hasn't been canceled, it's just changed its form, primarily because it's not a profitable event for our organization to produce, so it's just scaled down. Mill Avenue will be its organic self and it'll still be a great place to celebrate the new year."

Foster said the Fiesta Bowl's move from Tempe's Sun Devil Stadium to Glendale's University of Phoenix Stadium played a large role in the decline in the amount of people who attend the block party on Mill Avenue.

At its peak, when the block party was co-hosted by the Fiesta Bowl, as many as 100,000 people attended. The block party was canceled in 2012, when the Fiesta Bowl no longer co-hosted the event, but was picked up the following year by the Downtown Tempe Authority.

In 2013 and 2014, the party drew in about 30,000 to 35,000 people, Foster said, but last year brought in a crowd of about 17,000 to 25,000.

Chad Holmes, a manager at Fat Tuesday, said the lack of a fee to enter Mill Avenue will be a positive thing.

"In the past, they charged $25 just to get into the street, so it made it hard to charge cover to get into the bar (and) that always caused a problem," Holmes said. "I don't think a lot of people come for whatever happens outside because the bars are packed, so I don't think that'll change this year."

He's concerned that some people may make other plans in light of several media reports saying the block party has been canceled.

"I think a lot more people won't come to Mill who would've because they think that nothing is going on now," Holmes said.

Fat Tuesday is hosting a block party on New Year's Eve with a neighboring bar, The Handlebar, that will include a DJ and closed-off areas for partygoers.

Charles Stephenson, a manager at El Hefe, a Mexican restaurant and bar on Mill Avenue, said he expects to be just as busy as in years past. El Hefe and Dierks Bentley's Whiskey Row will hold their third annual Champagne Ball block party near Sixth Street and Mill Avenue.