{"id":1655652,"date":"2025-12-30T18:52:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T23:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/?p=1655652"},"modified":"2025-12-30T18:52:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T23:52:40","slug":"miamis-iconic-big-orange-undergoes-final-test-run-ahead-of-new-years-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/news\/local\/miami-dade\/miamis-iconic-big-orange-undergoes-final-test-run-ahead-of-new-years-eve\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami&#8217;s iconic Big Orange undergoes final test run ahead of New Year&#8217;s Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As New Year&#8217;s fast approaches in South Florida, an iconic part of South Florida history, Mr. Neon&#8217;s Big Orange, was tested for its big New Year&#8217;s moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Big Orange went for a test run, rising up the InterContinental Hotel ahead of its New Year&#8217;s ball drop, Wednesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The annual South Florida tradition was inspired by the big ball drop in New York&#8217;s Times Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year marks the <a href=\"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/news\/local\/miami-dade\/iconic-big-orange-returns-in-final-preparations-to-ring-in-the-new-year-in-miami-mr-neon-to-receive-key-to-city\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/news\/local\/miami-dade\/iconic-big-orange-returns-in-final-preparations-to-ring-in-the-new-year-in-miami-mr-neon-to-receive-key-to-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">40th anniversary<\/a> of the Big Orange celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve Carpenter, the creator of the Big Orange who goes by Mr. Neon, said he&#8217;s blown away by how popular his creation has become over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s crazy is that people come here from all over the world and they&#8217;ve been here for 10 and 15 and 20 different times, you know, of their life, and it&#8217;s amazing that they come just to see the orange,&#8221; said Carpenter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to view the event in downtown Miami at midnight on New Year&#8217;s Eve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As New Year&#8217;s fast approaches in South Florida, an iconic part of South Florida history, Mr. Neon&#8217;s Big Orange, was tested for its big New<a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/news\/local\/miami-dade\/miamis-iconic-big-orange-undergoes-final-test-run-ahead-of-new-years-eve\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188962061,"featured_media":1655653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-12-30T23:52:40Z","apple_news_api_id":"50346cde-32c3-484e-9530-4e58e3448e67","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-12-30T23:52:40Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AUDRs3jLDSE6VME5Y40SOZw","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_speedyseo_primary_category":"","_sunbeam_story_id":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566],"tags":[1415],"coauthors":[646697838],"class_list":["post-1655652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miami-dade","tag-video","sunbeam-copyright-default","sunbeam-location-test-location"],"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/12\/123025.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/188962061"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1655652"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1655658,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655652\/revisions\/1655658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1655653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1655652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1655652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1655652"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1655652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}