On Friday, December 16, the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum and the Old South Meeting House will host the 243rd Boston Tea Party Anniversary & Annual Reenactment on the event’s historic anniversary. The reenactment is free and open to the public and is an opportunity to experience one of America’s most iconic public protests.
The annual event draws thousands of spectators along the Boston waterfront to watch actual tea thrown into Boston Harbor. London’s East India Company, the same maker of the 1773 tea dumped into the harbor, is shipping 220 pounds of expired loose tea from London to Boston that reenactors will toss.
The reenactment is one of the largest historical performances in the United States. On December 16, hundreds of reenactors will bring the story of the Boston Tea Party to life, in the exact same location the events took place 243 years ago. The event starts at 6:30 pm with a ticketed event (SOLD OUT) at the Old South Meeting House, the hall where Boston colonists gathered to protest ‘taxation without representation’ – including Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere.
At 7:30 pm, the public may join the procession from the Old South Meeting House to the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum. Led by fifes and drums, colonial reenactors (and some Redcoats) will march from Milk to Congress to Pearl Streets, the same route the Sons of Liberty took to Boston Harbor to destroy the tea in 1773.
The main event takes place at 8:00 pm [at 306 Congress Street] as the Sons of Liberty reenactors board the Brig Beaver and destroy chest after chest of tea and spilling their contents into the harbor.
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Boston is a city rich with history. Check out some more suggestions of historic things to do on your next visit to Boston.