Ringing the Bells   No Middnight Button required.

At 11:30pm, all are welcome to gather on the lawn of the Church
of the Holy Trinity for a performance of Taiko drums and the midnight ringing of the bells to usher in the new year!

Paris, Je T'aime (2006)

Short film compilation (feature)

Twenty-two renowned international directors conduct a charming cinematic voyage around the arrondissements of Paris, defining the city's romance in a bevy of exciting ways: as a tender love story, as a moody vampire tale, as a family drama, as a tongue-in-cheek travelogue, and much more. (Rated R, 120 minutes)

Playtime (1972)

Family Comedy (feature)

When bumbling Mr. Hulot visits the city, he unwittingly takes part in a series of ornate visual gags that point out the ridiculousness of modern living. It's like a Where's Waldo book come to life amidst the hustle and bustle of airports, office buildings, apartments, and restaurants. (155 minutes)

Silent Slapstick Teams

Silent Comedy

It's simple comedy arithmetic:add the zany performers and watch the laughs multiply! Wesleyan's Marc Longenecker introduces shorts featuring Laurel and Hardy, Keaton and Arbuckle, plus Mabel Normand and the Keystone Kops.

That's Entertainment (1974)

Musical Documentary

MGM assembles a program of its greatest musical performances of the 20s-50s, hosted by and starring an array of the studio's legendary stars: names like Sinatra, Astaire, Crosby, Kelly, Rooney, and Garland.

The Coffee House Recording Studio
Records Shaka & the SoulShakers

Live Recording Session

Ever been to a live performance….in a recording studio?
The Coffeehouse Recording Studio invites you to tour their studio while Shaka & The SoulShakers make a record! This four-piece blues group, described as Down Home Bluesiana Swamp Soul,
is headed by Bill Shaka, a proud Middletown native and lifelong musician and music historian.

Soundscape Formation

The MAC650 gallery will feature an interactive soundscape inspired by the compositions of John Cage. Cage's Rozart Mix (1965) calls for 12 tape recorders playing 88 fragile tape loops. Participants/performers/observers change the loops as they break, and the piece continues until all 88 loops have broken. Our installation is a more (physically, if not historically) durable version of this piece, featuring cassette tapes, CDs, LPs, and radios. Multiple stations will be set up where visitors will control the volume, direction, content, and quality of the sounds, enabling each visitor to participate in the creative process. Visitors to the gallery will have complete control of the soundscape of the room, limited only by the materials available.

Urban Remix

MiddletownRemix is a collaborative, place-based sound project that enables participants to develop and express the acoustic identity of Middletown. The goal of this project is to create a sound portrait of Middletown using technology to create art together as a community. We believe that if people listen deeply, they will see more. Visit us at Oddfellows Playhouse from 3 to 6 pm on Middnight, Find out more and learn how to record sounds at middletownremix.org.

Display of Portraits from the
North End of Middletown, USA   No Middnight Button required.

Photographer Buster Nelson

Visit this exhibit on the first floor of Green Street Arts Center, open throughout Middnight. The photographs are by Buster Nelson, who states: "We believe we are all connected to the North End of Middletown in some way. To deepen the creative connections, communication channels, and trust within our community we use portrait photography. Creating a true, collaborative process is the challenge.  We use a picture frame both to question and to highlight aspects of how we may be seen and how we see ourselves.  What is in the frame of reference?"

Bugs on Display

You may like bugs, but you probably don’t like bugs as much as Professor Kat Owens, an environmental scientist from the University of Hartford.  Come view Professor Owens collection and discuss the specimens of hissing cockroaches, scarab beetles and more with her at Green Street Arts Center from 5 to 5:45 pm.

Game On with ConnectiCon

It takes strategy, intellect and a little bit of luck. The presenters of the annual ConnectiCon convention bring their stupendous board game collection to Middnight on Main, featuring titles that appeal to kids, teens and adults, like Munchkin, Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Ticket to Ride and more. Tables for open play and demos by their staff on games you've never played before.

Magic: the Gathering

Booster Draft with ConnectiCon

If you play Magic: the Gathering, then Booster Draft is exactly the format you're looking for! Instead of just opening your cards and building a deck, you and the other players at the table (four to eight total) have to draft the cards for your decks.

At the start of a Booster Draft, each player opens a booster pack and picks the card he or she wants from it. (You can't see the cards that the other players draft.) Then each player passes the rest of the pack to his or her left. You pick up the pack that was passed to you, select a card, and pass the rest to your left. This process continues until all the cards have been drafted. Next, each player opens a second pack, but this time, you pass the pack to your right. After all those cards are drafted, you open the third pack and pass to the left again.

Once all the packs have been drafted, players build decks from the cards they selected, adding as many basic lands (Plains, Islands, Swamps, Mountains, and Forests) to their decks as they like. Each deck must have at least 40 cards.

Each pair of players then plays a match, which consists of the best two out of three games. In the next round, the winners play against other winners (and the losers against the losers, if you like). The player who wins all three rounds—or all three matches—is the winner. It's a great way to spend a few hours with your buddies. (Registration 3 to 3:30 pm)

Youth Poetry Slam   No Middnight Button required.

Join the North End Action Team and the OneWord Youth Poetry Team for a Youth Poetry Slam. If you are a young poet between the ages of 13 and 19, registration begins at 4 pm, poetry begins at 4:30 pm. Come prepared with original works and slam against past, present and future members of the CT OneWord Poetry Team. You don't have to be a poet to get in on the action. Everyone is invited to come watch these young poets speak their minds. We will be looking for judges and audience members to come join the fun at the NEAT office.

Send a New Year's Resolution Postcard

Create a one-of-a-kind postcard at our art table at Main Street Market and write yourself a message about your hopes and dreams for 2013. We'll send the postcard to you after Middnight!

Make a New Year's Lantern

Stop by the Community Health Center from 7 to 10pm and create a New Year's Lantern of your own design.