Tonight rings in the New Year ... where New York City has its ball, Mobile, Alabama drops a Moonpie and Eastport, Maine drops a sardine. Not to be outdone, Idaho drops a glowing resin and fiberglass potato.
Dylan Cline is the founder of the Idaho Potato Drop. He told Idaho Matters he was sitting on his couch in 2012 watching a story on TV about the Time’s Square Ball Drop …
“And I got to thinking, I’ve never really left the house for New Year’s Eve my entire life, I’d love to go somewhere fun. There was a big hole at 8th and Main as everybody can recall and there was a big crane looming there so I thought, hey, maybe I can build a huge Idaho potato and drop it at midnight, so that was the catalyst there,” says Cline.
A few years ago, he and his team added lights inside the spud, so now it glows as it falls. Cline says it can be hard to tell, but the potato itself is pretty big.
“Any point of reference is a little discombobulating, no matter if you’re looking at it up close or from afar. It’s 17 feet in length, 10 feet tall and about 9 feet in width,” says Cline.
Now the Idaho Potato Drop is in its sixth year. Cline says the event brings thousands of people to the Idaho Statehouse to watch the potato drop at midnight.
Find Samantha Wright on Twitter @samwrightradio
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