STORY:
Gisborne Expects 6-times Population On NYE

First major city to see first 2000 dawn expects 180,000 on New Year's Eve

Gisborne New Zealand is preparing for the biggest single event in its history and it's for something that happens everyday, a sunrise. On January 1, 2000 the sun will rise at 5:46 am at Gisborne which sits in the first time zone after The International Dateline. That makes Gisborne, a somewhat remote seaside town on the North Island of New Zealand, the largest city to see the earliest dawn of the Year 2000.

Gisborne's normal population is 30,000 but organizers of the city's New Year's Eve and New Year's Day events are preparing to handle 180,000 visitors from all over the world. City leaders see their "First to See the Light" as it's being called, a once-in-a-lifetime event for their city that has seen the highest unemployment rates in New Zealand.

The centerpiece event will be a 24-hour, star-studded concert featuring David Bowie, New Zealand's opera diva Kiri Te Kanawa and a reunion of New Zealand's own Split Enz. Bowie plans to take the stage at 12:01 am so he can say he gave the first concert of 2000. John Tesh plans to sing right as dawn hits the horizon. Thirty-five thousand people are expected at the beachside concert.

Because of its location, Gisborne will feature prominently in several of the marathon millennium broadcasts, including shows being produced by the BBC , The Millennium Television Network and Japan's TV Asahi.

Aside from bolstering police forces and various city services, the city reportedly plans to book six refrigerated trucks as temporary morgues because lifeguards fear up to a dozen people may drown as drunken, fully dressed revelers swim out to meet the dawn.

The city has only two hotels and 27 motels that reportedly are booked up. City managers are now asking residents to open their home to visitors for pleasure or profit. The city's mayor anticipates a third of the visitors will be family or friend of Gisborne residents.

DATE: 08/05/99

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