Local Event: Valentine's Day in Time Square

(Times Square, N.Y. – February 6, 2020) On Valentine’s Day, New Yorkers and visitors looking for  romance in New York City will find it at the Crossroads of the World. Real life love stories will unfold  in front of the annual Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition winner – Heart Squared by  MODU Architects and Eric Forman Studio. Lovers will surprise their partners with proposals of marriage on Times Square’s iconic signage, couples tie the knot on Duffy Square, and hundreds of people renew their vows on the Red Steps. 

For those looking to watch or join in on the festivities, the day will include:

• At 11:00am and 12:00pm, couples will get hitched on Valentine’s Day right in the heart of Times Square, including one couple who proposed just two weeks ago at the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles. The other couple survived a 5 year long distance relationship between Washington D.C. and Rhode Island – Times Square was their meeting place in between for those years. The ceremonies will be conducted for the 7th year in a row by licensed NYS officiant and Times Square Alliance Vice President of Human Resources Hollis Kam.

• At 11:30am, 12:30pm, and 1:00pm, lucky lovers will be surprised with a Valentine’s Day gift that they – and everyone else in Times Square – won’t see coming and won’t soon forget: a surprise marriage proposal on Times Square’s iconic American Eagle screen, including a proposal from a woman who wants to turn the tables on tradition and propose to her man.

• Beginning at 6:00pm, hundreds of couples will celebrate their love and romance during a large  vow renewal ceremony on the iconic Red Steps in Times Square. The ceremony is free and open to people of all ages, genders, religions, races, and backgrounds, and will be preceded by a performance from Broadway’s Tony Award-winning Best Musical Dear Evan Hansen and will conclude by 6:30pm. One participating couple will also win a pair of tickets to Dear Evan Hansen, provided by the Times Square Alliance. Couples can register for this free event by  visiting www.TSq.org/Vows .

Starting at 11:00 am, The Knot, a leading wedding planning and registry resource, will host a pop-up  floral bar where visitors can make their own complimentary small floral bouquets to give to a loved one for Valentine's Day (while supplies last). The pop up will also have an Instagrammable floral wall where visitors can take photos. Additionally, throughout the day T Mobile will have a DJ booth featuring love-themed music, dancing and special giveaways.

All of the festivities will overlook the winner of this year’s 12th annual Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition: “Heart Squared” by MODU and Eric Forman Studio – made of 125 mirrors tilted  in various directions within a steel frame that evokes the outline of an anatomic heart, which transforms Times Square into kaleidoscopic images of people, buildings, and brightly-lit billboards. As viewers move around the structure, those hundreds of reflections suddenly coalesce, revealing a pixel heart of  urban life surrounded by a field of mirrored sky. For more information visit TSQ.org/HeartSquared . 

Times Square Arts’ February programming will also include Shantell Martin’s Lines of Mars, which is featured on Times Square’s electronic billboards from 11:57pm to midnight every night in February as this month’s Midnight Moment. Midnight Moment is a monthly presentation by the Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts. In Martin’s improvisational illustrations, faces and figures appear and disappear amongst images of the city and of Times Square itself, mingling with a playful, direct address to the viewer on the age-old question of identity: “who are you?” For more  information about Line of Mars, please visit www.TSq.org/arts .

Footage and images of the celebration will be available upon request after the event. Footage and images of Heart Squared is available here (credits are included in the file names).

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Source: Times Square Alliance / timessquarenyc.org