STORY:
Anchorage 2000 Events Take Shape

Known as Anchorage 2000, the party begins with this year's summer solstice. Along the way, it will comprise more than 18 months of parades, games, music and dance, Native cultural displays, community workshops, readings, health fairs, festivals, lights and flowers, all-season tourism promotions, and whatever else the people come up with, so long as it fits, the celebration's architect told the Anchorage Daily News.

"It's a master plan for the millennium," Tennys Owens, chairwoman of Anchorage 2000, said. "This is so ambitious, when you (see the plan), you'll go, 'I don't even believe it.' "

At least three Anchorage 2000 events stand out, Owens told the Anchorage Daily News. Each employs the concept of a "marketable block" of time aimed at tourists no less than locals, especially in winter.

"A Night of Light," for example, is a family oriented New Year's Eve celebration on Dec. 31. Downtown will be blocked off to traffic. In the afternoon dusk, 2,000 children will begin a torchlight parade accompanied by parents and teachers, scores of athletes and others.

Following the parade, arts and cultural performances will break out in venues across the city.

The Northern Lights Circumpolar Winter Festival, scheduled to run from late January through March 2000, will span pre-Fur Rendezvous events, post-Iditarod and everything in between.

Summer Solstice/July Fourth Festival next year will be the highlight of a summer's worth of celebrations, Owens said.

A web site will make the long calendar of multicultural events available on the Internet, linking the city with the worldwide 2000 mania.

Source: Anchorage Daily News Full Text

DATE: 2/15/99

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