A long-standing New Year’s Eve tradition will not take place this year.

The 27th Annual Tamaqua Ball Rise has been canceled due to construction work at the host site, the ABC Tamaqua High Rise building on East Broad Street.

“We’re undergoing a $5M renovation program which includes new windows. With those, the bottom portion will crank outward. The design is different from the traditional double hung window and won’t allow for necessary New Year’s Eve preparation work to take place,” said facility manager Pat Freeh-Stefanek on Wednesday.

Along with new windows, the overhaul includes replacement of coping stones, the large concrete slabs that cap the walls atop the 17th floor.

They will be replaced by a new design using wood and vinyl, which will prevent the use of clamps to attach the oversized panels that hold the numbers for the near year.

Other work at the site will include new kitchens, baths and doors.

Freeh-Stefanek is in discussion with lighting technician Frank Fabrizio of Brockton and others to come up with a new approach to the event for 2026.

“We do have sponsors and we’ll hold those over for next year. We’ll keep them in mind as we figure out what to do.”

The spectacle is typically touted as the region’s largest, highest and brightest New Year’s Eve celebration and is done in synchronization with Times Square in New York City via a simulcast.

The event takes place in all kinds of weather, sometimes subfreezing. In those situations, the crowd arrives just 15 minutes before midnight.

However, milder temperatures often lure crowds to East Broad Street, Route 209, a bit earlier.

The event has a storied history. It was devised in 1998 as a one-time spectacle to usher in the 1999 Tamaqua Founding Bicentennial Celebration.

At that time, two dozen members of the Tamaqua Bicentennial Committee came up with the idea and anticipated a modest crowd of 200 to 250 to line the sidewalks.

To everyone’s surprise, more than 1,000 converged on the block. Sidewalks could not contain the hordes, which spilled over into the street.

That surprise turnout was the catalyst that turned the ball rise into a yearly attraction.

The event has had its share of surprises and unusual circumstances.

In 1999, the committee hyped the show as a countdown to the new millennium and Tamaqua’s step into its third century. That year, the ball went up, then down, and then continued to bounce, setting off fireworks and a light show in front of 1,200 spectators.

There was added suspense, as well, with many fearing a Y2K bug would blanket the region and entire country in total darkness at the stroke of midnight.

But the “Y2K Curse” never materialized.

Originally, the ball drop exactly mimicked the one in New York. But over the years, it morphed into a Tamaqua-specific theme, such as using a blue-and-white eagle, a popular Tamaqua school mascot, instead of a ball.

Organizers say the event could not take place without the support and cooperation of high-rise residents, Tamaqua Borough, and Tamaqua police.

They’re hoping a variation of the celebration will resume to welcome 2026.