STORY:
Families Fun in Jacksonville, Atlantic Beach

Cities are targeting family oriented celebrations on New Year's Eve.

Family events are on tap on two northern Florida cities. In Jacksonville, the official New Year's Eve celebration centers on the river. You can go for free, wandering the music venues on both sides of the St. Johns and on the Main Street Bridge. The bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic and will be a great place to take in the boat and kite show, laser show and fireworks according to the Florida Times-Union.

On the upscale side, the Gator Bowl Association, the Jacksonville Symphony Association and the Symphony Guild have joined forces to produce the Party of the Century, an elaborate extravaganza that will fill the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts plus the riverfront and grounds around it.

The benefactor party ($ 500 per person) will begin around 6 p.m., about the same time as the boat and kite show. The package starts with cocktails, a seated dinner and a dance. Around 9 p.m., the patron party ($ 250 per person) launches with a buffet-style dinner, dessert, champagne, dancing, a concert filled with special effects, the laser show, preliminary fireworks at 11:30 p.m. and the city's pyrotechnic extravaganza at midnight.

The entire family can join in Atlantic Beach's fourth First Night celebration, a creative arts-based, non-traditional alternative for New Year's Eve. The communitywide fun will begin at 5 p.m. in Atlantic Beach and conclude after the midnight fireworks, produced jointly by Atlantic Beach and Mayport for the Northenders' viewing.

There will be five indoor venues for music, which ranges from the swing rhythms of Sugar Daddies and the African drumming of Benkadi to the premiere of Gerson Yessin's composition for the millennium celebration. Strolling musicians and artists also will entertain First Nighters.

Attendance is limited to 2,500. First Night buttons that give access to all activities will go on sale after Thanksgiving. Prices are $5 in advance, $7 that night, assuming any are still available.

Source: The Florida Times-Union

DATE: 10/4/99

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