Downtown Mobile sliced into a 154-pound MoonPie as part of this year’s MoonPie Over Mobile New Year’s Eve celebration, continuing a tradition that has become one of the city’s signature holiday events.
The oversized treat, baked by Chattanooga Bakery, the company behind the original MoonPie, arrived in Mobile in the days leading up to the celebration after roughly a full day of production. Event organizers said the giant confection was the last MoonPie of its kind made for the year, capping off a busy holiday production run at the bakery.
Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson and a city councilman made the ceremonial first cut into the massive dessert during the evening event at the Renaissance Riverview Plaza courtyard downtown. Last year’s giant MoonPie served more than 170 people once it was carved up and handed out to the crowd gathered for the countdown.
The MoonPie cutting is one piece of a larger New Year’s Eve celebration in downtown Mobile that typically draws thousands of residents and visitors to the riverfront for music, food and a midnight countdown. Mobile has leaned into its unofficial identity as the “MoonPie Capital” in recent years, and the New Year’s Eve event has grown into one of the city’s most recognizable holiday traditions, complete with a lighted MoonPie drop timed to midnight.
City officials and event organizers use the celebration to draw visitors downtown during the holiday week, giving local restaurants, bars and shops a boost during what can otherwise be a quiet stretch between Christmas and New Year’s.
Families were encouraged to arrive early to find parking and good viewing spots along the riverfront before the evening’s festivities kicked off, with the city publishing a detailed schedule of music acts, food vendors and the exact timing of the MoonPie cutting and midnight drop in the days leading up to the event.