Visitors to Times Square got a small preview of New York City’s famed New Year’s Eve party on Friday, as the event’s organisers heaved handfuls of coloured paper skyward in a promotional event to test their confetti. With crowds of celebrants expected to pack into Times Square for the festivities, even the smallest details can’t be overlooked, said Jeff Straus, president of Countdown Entertainment. That includes the 2-by-2 inch (5-by-5-cm) slips of paper that will flutter to the ground at the stroke of midnight on Sunday.

“This is a whole process,” Straus said. “We got to feel the confetti. We got to fluff it up. We got to make sure it’s going to float.” While the test may have been more promotional than practical, the actual New Year’s confetti release—which has been part of the event since 1992—remains a labour-intensive operation. An estimated 3,000 pounds (1,361 kg) of confetti are trucked into midtown Manhattan each year, then carried to rooftops of office buildings overlooking Times Square. About a hundred volunteer “dispersal engineers” then drop the haul on the street below to ring in the new year.