STORY:
London's New Year Party Gets Even Brighter

The Queen of England will take part in lighting up London this New Year's Eve

London's New Year Eve celebration gets more and more elaborate and now the Queen is taking part. The Queen will fire a laser beam across the River Thames and that in turn will ignite the world's largest beacon.

The London Beacon will be ignited at 9:45 p.m. and will form a part of a chain stretching the length of the British Isles. Those on the meridian Line will be the last to be lit at midnight. The Queen will perform the ceremony to get the whole chain started.

Here's how the elaborate chain is set into action. The Queen will be sailing down the Thames from Westminster to Greenwich along with Prince Philip where they will attend the opening night party at the Millennium Dome. While on board the ferry "Millennium of Peace" the Queen will be handed a laser torch. This torch will send a beam across the water to a barge that is moored beside the Tower of London. Mounted on the barge are four giant burners that will send a flame shooting into the night sky which will be visible for miles around.

This British Gas Millennium beacon will be the largest in the world. The beacon weighs 26 tons is as wide as a tennis court and will burn up to nine tons of liquid propane. The beacon has been a long time in the making. It was first envisaged in 1993 and is sponsored by British Gas. This is the largest beacon ever for London although other smaller beacons have been used during previous historical events.

The beacon ceremony is part of a larger celebration called London's Big Time Party. It is the official millennium event for the capital which caps off with a "river of fire" racing up the Thames from Tower Bridge to Vauxhall Bridge and then followed by a massive fireworks display. Those are just the evening activities.

During the day there will be parties on both sides of the river. There will be funfairs, parades, dances, music and performance arts.

DATE: 11/3/99

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