STORY:
Anchorage Lays Out Party Plans

Torchlight parade, exhibits, entertainment planned

Anchorage is planning a huge New Year's Eve celebration that includes a torchlight parade through the city and arts exhibits and performances in public buildings like the Egan Convention Center, the Transit Center and the Performing Arts Center, plus several private buildings.

According to a story in the Anchorage Daily News, the city is planning a "New Year's zone" that will be closed to traffic to create a pedestrian zone from C to H streets and from Fourth to 10th avenues.

If all goes as planned, millions of lights and candles will brighten the winter darkness as people walk to exhibits, stopping at warm-up tents and food vendors or at their favorite downtown restaurants and clubs. More than 100 acts are expected to perform, changing about once an hour.

As midnight approaches, group drumming from the Performing Arts Center will echo through outdoor amplifiers set up across town, building momentum for the new century and a fireworks display.

The celebration, called "A Night of Light," will be family oriented and is modeled on similar "first night" events staged over the past 20 years in up to 300 cities around the United States.

Admissions buttons will sell for about $8. A button will admit revelers to indoor events. Street events will be free.

Unfortunately foremost in the organizers mind is the weather. According to the story, last New Year's Eve, the low in downtown Anchorage was 6 degrees. In 1997, it dipped to minus 14.

Source: Anchorage Daily News

DATE: 6/22/99

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