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Read the press release here.

Practice Confetti Drifts Down on Times Square

By  Paul Lomax and Jess Wisloski | December 29, 2012 7:00pm 

TIMES SQUARE — Chilly rain squalls may have taken the place of the downy snow that many New Yorkers envisioned for Saturday, but a different kind of bright joyful detritus drifted from the sky in Midtown.

A practice-run of the New Year's confetti — a ton of which is dumped from the tops of buildings all around Times Square after the ball drops, when America celebrates the New Year — gave weekend passersby a taste of the world's greatest party before it takes over the iconic gathering spot Monday night.

Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, joined by Allison Hagendorf, who will host the New Year's Eve event, tossed handfuls of confetti from eight stories above West 46th Street over Times Square on Saturday morning at the Alliance's headquarters.

The confetti, an annual tradition of the longstanding celebration, includes New Year "wishes" scrawled on scraps which are submitted by hundreds of visitors to the Times Square Museum and vistor's center, and contained hopes written by people from over 50 countries, an Alliance release stated.

Among the throngs of visitors Saturday was Caoimhe McGiven, 28, from Armagh in Northern Ireland who came to New York with her husband Mark, along with her sister Shauna, and Shauna's boyfriend Patch.

"I've heard so many good things about New Year's Eve in Times Square and I've never been here before, so this is like a dream come true for me," said McGiven, pinning her confetti wish on the Wishing Wall.

Luke Kingston, 22, a civil engineer from Brisbane, Australia, and his girlfriend Annie Willat, 21 a law student, pinned their wishes on the wall together.

"This is great. It's good to be here. I think the atmosphere in Times Square on New Year's Eve is going to fantastic," said Kingston.