STORY:
Big Ticket In Big Apple is Big Bucks

An article appearing in the New York Times says party-goers are going to dig deep into their wallets to enjoy New Year's Eve in New York City.

New York producer, Steven Leber, has paid more than $2 million to rent out all four floors of the 22-acre Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan on New Year's Eve. He says that 25,000 guests will pay $1,000 to $2,500 to participate in what he calls "Celebration 2000: The Party of the Century."

The 12-hour event, to be sponsored by American Express, is to kick off at 6 p.m. on Dec. 31 and will end after breakfast, offering entertainers who include the tenor Andrea Bocelli, the magician David Copperfield and the comedian Joan Rivers as well as the singers Sting, Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry, Tom Jones and Enrique Iglesias.

For 2,000 partygoers willing to pay $2,500 per head, meals will be designed and supervised by the chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, proprietor of such restaurants as Jean Georges, Vong and Mercer Kitchen.

At the Rainbow Room, operated these days by the Cipriani family, the millennium party will cost $6,000 per couple for live music and dancing for about 250 guests (that's $3,900 per person, including tax and gratuity).

Then there's the fund-raiser at the American Museum of Natural History, which plans to welcome about 1,500 guests paying $1,000 to $5,000. Their tickets will entitle them to a preview of the Rose Center for Earth and Space and the new Hayden Planetarium, which do not officially open until February 2000. The event is already 80 percent sold out, according to a museum spokesman.

On the other hand, "Our party is free," Peter Kohlmann tells the Times. He is the executive producer of the 24-hourlong Times Square 2000 celebration, to be the largest in the event's 94-year history.

In Times Square, the millennium will be celebrated time zone by time zone, starting at 7 a.m. New York time, when revelers in the South Pacific greet the New Year. Live video coverage of these festivities will be displayed to the crowd on five new 20-by-30-foot TV screens.

"Every hour, for 20 minutes, there will be a live event in Times Square, with music, choreographed pageantry, lighting, pyrotechnics and other special effects," said Kohlmann, who is producing the event under the auspices of the Times Square Business Improvement District.

Source: New York Times / Deseret News

DATE: 5/03/99

For more E2000 stories, click here:
news | events | Y2K | today's news

Marketplace
Books
Collectibles
Celebration Supplies
General Merchandise
Travel Packages