First Night Tacoma has always been an enjoyable evening of music and art, but for First Night on New Year's Eve, the shenanigans will be ramped up considerably. It's become a press-release cliché to say an event is "fun for all ages," but this time around there really is something to appeal to every entertainment niche and age group. And it's cheap! A mere 10-spot can nab you a First Night button, which bestows upon the wearer free access to the Children's Museum of Tacoma, Tacoma Art Museum and Museum of Glass any time before 5 p.m. New Year's Eve. But wait, as the ads say, there's more! You also get free skate rental that day at the Franciscan Polar Plaza ice skating rink and access to all First Night stages. If you happen to be a kid 10 or younger who enjoys reading the Volcano, your First Night button is free!

Aha, but what's on those many stages? The music gets underway at the main stage, Ninth and Broadway, at 6:30 p.m., courtesy of the Owl Parliament. That group's paired with One Love Marching Band, specializing in world music. At 6:45, the music schedule basically explodes. Guitarist and uke player Del Ray hits the Pythian (926 Broadway), the Fame Riot shakes the Rialto (310 S. 9th), great Dane Jessica Lynne & the Cousins play Theater on the Square (901 Broadway), jazz-funk band McTuff invades the Graffiti Garages at Seventh and Broadway, the ‘60s-style pop trio Trees & Timber rock the Blue Couch Lounge (906 Broadway), and Uncle Bonsai folks up the Pantages (901 Broadway). That's a hell of a lot of music in just a few blocks. Seriously, do you have anyplace better to be?

You just might at 7 o'clock. That's when Tacomapoly, the life-size board game, gets underway at 11th and Broadway. It's improv performance art to highlight local business, narrated by NWCZ Internet Radio. Also at 7, a merry band of jack tars lead Sanford & Sons (743 Broadway) in a round of sea shanties. Yar! Meanwhile, the music schedule adds Forest Beutel (Tully's Coffee, 764 Broadway) and dance-rockers Mirrorgloss (the Duchess of Downtown stage, 1131 Broadway). Abi Grace takes us on a personal tour of the local music business in her one-woman show Going Feral: A Modern Fairytale for Your Inner Wild Child, playing the Broadway Center's Studio 2 at 901 Broadway. One floor up, magician Christopher Bange presents a comedy-illusionist act called, perhaps inevitably, More Bange for Your Buck.

Ben Union hits the Rialto stage at 7:30. Music acts at 7:45 include Cumulus (the main stage), Kye Alfred Hillig (Sanford & Sons), and Vikesh Kapoor (the Pantages). Then at 8 comes Barleywine Review (the Pythian) and Strangely Alright (1131 Broadway), followed by the Thoughts (the Blue Couch Lounge) at 8:30. Meanwhile, the commedia troop Suburban Tribe plays Studio 2, and comedy duo Moby Alpha presents what it calls "Moby-Dick in space" up in Studio 3. Blues artist Baby Gramps is downstairs.

Look, we could go on like this all night. The Voice's Stephanie Anne Johnson, for example, plays the Duchess of Downtown stage at 10. Unfortunately, space is limited (in print, natch), and we must finish by drawing your attention to the greatest soap box derby of all time: "Nose Ringers vs. Old Farts," in which juniors and seniors will vie for Ninth-Street supremacy. The crew headed by Karl Reyes will belt "Ride of the Valkyries" as it plummets downhill. Other cars will be on literal fire. Sold! For more of an intensely crowded schedule, check out FirstNightTacoma.org.

First Night Tacoma, 6 p.m. to midnight, Tuesday, Dec. 31, around Ninth and Broadway, downtown Tacoma, tickets, firstnighttacoma.org