An article about the public's plans for celebrating the New Year:

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/mill05.html

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), September 07, 1999

Answers

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

Why go out to ring in Y2K?

September 5, 1999

BY GARY WISBY STAFF REPORTER

For Candace and Burt Tesler, the last New Year's Eve of the millennium is too important to spend at some big party miles from home.

"We've already been invited to a party at a restaurant in the city," said Candace, a Wilmette mother of two. "But there's no way we're going to drive into the city and stay late and drive back, with no children invited."

She and Burt want to be with their boys, Scott, 9, and Will, 6, when time's odometer turns over from 99 to double-zero.

Candace would also like the gathering to include her parents, who live in Pennsylvania, and her 96-year-old grandfather, a Floridian, but Y2K concerns are keeping the Teslers out of airplanes for the weeks on either side of Jan. 1.

So the family will see the millennium in "with close friends in the same community, with our kids," Candace said.

The Teslers are typical, according to a new poll by National Family Opinion Research. It found that 82 percent of Americans plan to spend New Year's Eve at home or the home of a friend or family member, with 10 or fewer people present.

Only 7 percent said they will head out to a big party, concert or other special event. The remainder will celebrate at a restaurant, 3 percent; hotel, 2 percent; church, 2 percent; work, 2 percent, and other, 2 percent.

The survey of 1,000 people was commissioned by the Billennium Organizing Committee, a Chicago-based firm formed in 1991 to advise businesses and entertainment companies how to market the millennium. (Billennium is short for bi-millennium.)

Its president, Mark Mitten, doesn't know how many of the respondents who will spend the millennium's eve at work will be there because their employers are nervous about Y2K.

But while worries about power outages and canceled flights are certainly a factor in people's decision to stay home, more important considerations are in play, he said.

Eight in 10 staying home on New Year's Eve is normal for any year, Mitten said. "The younger audience is going out," he said. "Boomers and above are going to stay home with their kids and families or friends."

He finds that heartening.

"It has a humanitarian, family-oriented aspect. People want to enjoy an extravagant dinner, get some special takeout [food], drink some wine or champagne. Beyond that they want to spend the time with friends or family, talking about the past, about where they are now and where they will be in the future."

Many will rent videos or continue the tradition of watching Dick Clark and the midnight "ball drop" in Times Square. But the night will be less about sitting in front of the TV and more about reflection and reminiscence, the poll found. The 24-hour countdowns planned by ABC, PBS and the Pax networks aroused little excitement.

All those stay-at-homes don't bode well for promoters of high-ticket parties and concerts. "Many mega-events are going to be mega-duds," Mitten said.

Not all will flop. There are probably enough folks with disposable income to fill the Staples Center in Los Angeles to hear Jackson Browne, the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt, even at $1,000 a pop. For the same price on the other coast, "Party 2000" featuring tenor Andrea Bocelli and Sting at Manhattan's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center promises to pack them in.

And in Chicago, the Drake Hotel had no trouble booking all 537 of its rooms, despite pricey packages ranging from $1,300 to $1,950 per couple for a three-night stay.

"We're totally sold out for New Year's Eve," said the Drake's Evelyn Sanchez. "I don't think people are staying home."

But most people apparently are, even though they feel that the transition from one millennium to the next is a big deal indeed.

"This is so momentous," Candace Tesler said. "At no other time will we ever experience this." And she wants her children to be with her when it happens.

"This year," she said, "we'll probably let them stay up past midnight."

***

Party poopers are causing some major cancellations

What if they threw a millennium bash and nobody came?

That's been the story for many ballyhooed events around the world, as entrepreneurial enthusiasm collides with reality.

In New Zealand, which because it hugs the International Dateline has been hyping itself as "the first nation in the world to welcome in the new millennium," a midnight show starring David Bowie was canceled last month in the face of slow ticket sales.

Six years of planning for "the largest party ever held on planet Earth," a five-day extravaganza aimed at attracting 2.5 million people, came to naught in spring when organizers failed to acquire adequate financial backing and 5,000 acres in Southern California.

Minneapolis also was unable to find enough corporate support for a planned six-day, $8 million event and called off its Millennium Celebration in late July. Dallas gave up on a five-week, $30 million celebration way back in January when it drew only $1 million of a needed $12 million in sponsorships.

Sea cruise promoters began talking up millennium trips three or four years ago, luring travelers to put down deposits. "Until the prices came out," said Barbara Golen, co-owner of Hemisphere Travel in Prospect Heights. "They were so astronomical that people said, `Forget this. I'm not going anyplace.' "

Operators jacked up the cost of cruises that normally went for $1,500 to $2,500, Golen said. With few takers, they began lowering prices in recent weeks.

"A lot are going now," the travel agent said. "But a majority are not."

Gary Wisby

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-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), September 07, 1999.

Why Drop $1000-2000 dollars to see a bunch of over-paid, hackneyed, wish-they-was-never-will-be performers ring in the New Year/Millenium? With all the media available in the world, I'd rather sit 'round the tube with my wife and kid and family, enjoying some drinks, good food, and better company...gotta feeling this is the majority opinion too, at least according to the article. Why pay to watch the ball drop in NYC when it's broadcast on all the stations of the cable-tv world?

-- Billy-Boy (Rakkasn@Yahoo.com), September 07, 1999.

Altogether now.... The next Millennium begins in 2001.

Not 2000.

Got brains?

-- oh well (who@cares.anyway), September 07, 1999.

Oh Well,

Ahhhhhrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh! It doesn't matter how many times you try to tell people, they all have it stuck inside their pointy little heads that 2000 is the millenium! They just look at you and give you "THAT LOOK" and say "Ummmmm, sure! Anything you say". It's like talking to people who think the moon shot was faked, nothing gets thru. Might as well give it up, as I have. Yes! It's the millenium!!! Happy Millenium, everybody!!! Wooo Hoooo! Party in the ashes! Dancin' in the ruins!!! If anything is supposed to happen because the millenium is a magic number, this IS the year!!!! HEE HEE HEEEEE! HAAA HOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Sigh....trying to swim against cultural tides, just makes you crazy.

-- Bokonon (bok0non@my-Deja.com), September 07, 1999.

By 2001, well all need a "second" millennium party!

BTW, San Franciscos closing the Golden Gate Bridge for a short while to celebrate... 2000. Tempting.

;-D

Diane

GG Bridge shutting for Y2K gala
Gregory Lewis
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
Aug. 27, 1999

City's New Year's Eve bash includes Bay landmark

The Golden Gate Bridge will be closed at midnight New Year's Eve as part of The City's splashy celebration to welcome the year 2000, which includes big bangs at four San Francisco sites - but no big-time entertainment. ... (more)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ article.cgi?file=/examiner/archive/1999/08/27/NEWS7317.dtl

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), September 07, 1999.

The Teslers are typical, according to a new poll by National Family Opinion Research. It found that 82 percent of Americans plan to spend New Year's Eve at home or the home of a friend or family member, with 10 or fewer people present.

Only 7 percent said they will head out to a big party, concert or other special event. The remainder will celebrate at a restaurant, 3 percent; hotel, 2 percent; church, 2 percent; work, 2 percent, and other, 2 percent.

All of us GI's should feel offended. They didn't even ask about bunkers!

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), September 07, 1999.