NEW YORK, Jan 1 — Tens of thousands of partygoers from around the world braved freezing temperatures and driving rain overnight yesterday to ring in the new year in New York’s famed Times Square.

“I really wanted to live this experience in New York. It’s once in a lifetime,” said Jennifer Lopez, who hails from the Dominican Republic but now calls Long Island home.

The passage to the new year in the “Big Apple” has taken place since 1907 in Manhattan, at the intersection of Broadway and 42nd Street — a crossroad illuminated day and night by the signs of theatres, music halls, and giant digital advertising screens.

The colourful event attracts New Yorkers, other Americans, and foreigners in the tens of thousands every December 31.

Elizabeth Anderson, a 32-year-old Mexican now living in Australia, was making her third trip to New York, where she met her husband 11 years ago.

New Year’s Eve in Times Square is “on the bucket list”, she told AFP.

The highlight of the evening was the descent of the Times Square ball, a 60-second countdown as a geodesic sphere — illuminated and covered in crystal — descended a 20-metre pylon.

The ball’s lights went out briefly for a fireworks display as the crowd cheered and strangers hugged and kissed.