Mayor-Elect Adams To Be Sworn In At Times Square New Year's Eve

NEW YORK, NY — New Yorkers celebrating the New Year in Times Square this weekend will also get to ring in the reign of a new leader for the Big Apple.

Mayor-elect Eric Adams — whose Brooklyn inauguration ceremony was postponed by the coronavirus surge — will instead be sworn into office at the annual Times Square New Year's Eve celebration, he announced Wednesday.

The ceremony will be held shortly after the ball drop at midnight.

“Times Square has long been synonymous with the New Year — a place of excitement, renewal, and hope for the future," Adams said. "...I am deeply humbled to officially take the oath of office at this iconic occasion, and to participate in the transfer of leadership that is a cornerstone of our democracy."

The announcement comes after Adams was forced to postpone a joint inauguration event he planned with incoming Comptroller Brad Lander and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams at Brooklyn's Kings Theatre given a coronavirus spike driven by the omicron variant.

Adams, Lander and Williams have said that event will be postponed to a yet-to-be announced date.

At the Times Square celebration, Adams will take his oath of office surrounded by members of his family, using his family's Bible with help from the City Clerk, according to his office.

The New Year's event will also be scaled back given the omicron wave. Only 15,000 (vaccinated) people will be allowed into the viewing areas on Dec. 31 as a virus-preventing precaution, city leaders said last week.

New Yorkers can watch the ball drop and the swearing-in ceremony on a Times Square Alliance livestream. The event is also available on NewYearsEve.nyc, LiveStream.com/2022, TimesSquareBall.net and typically carried on virtually all cable TV networks.

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