Channel 8 Eyewitness News wishes everyone a Happy New Year! 


Las Vegas has become famous for it's New Year's Eve fireworks shows -- the blasts of color in the sky, hundreds of thousands of people down below.



Once you see it, you know it's special. Fireworks cascading over the Las Vegas Strip, explosions of spectacular colors ---- above hotels and casinos -- art meets architecture and the man in charge knows what's expected. 

Phil Grucci, owner of Fireworks by Grucci, says, "It eclipses Times Square. It eclipses Australia and all the other iconic areas -- France. The show is the largest by far." 

Grucci coordinated and now set up the largest 2006 New Year's Eve fireworks display in the world. A total of 40,000 devices are spread over ten casino rooftops. They will all go off during the choreographed performance -- a performance specifically designed to pay tribute to the past and end the Las Vegas Centennial celebration. 

The fireworks were shot off the rooftops of 10 Strip hotels -- Excalibur, MGM-Grand, Monte Carlo, Ballys, Flamingo, Venetian, Treasure Island, Stardust, Circus-Circus, and Stratosphere.

This year's display cost about half a million dollars and it was paid entirely by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and Las Vegas Events.

The New Year's celebration is also the end of Las Vegas' Centennial year, and it will be sent off with a bang with a record setting toast! Mayor Oscar Goodman rehearsed the toast Friday. 

The city will be uncorking 2,400 bottles of wine for everyone who bought a ticket for the downtown celebration to get a glass. 

The New Year celebration is just the last in a long series of record-breaking events for our Centennial year. 

Mayor Goodman said, "It's another way that Las Vegas is different than any other place on earth. We're going to break a record. It's going to be in the Guinness Book just like the big birthday cake was. The only difference is there won't be anything left over!"

The mayor says the toast will be to the health, happiness and prosperity of all of Las Vegas.

The countdown to the New Year is on. Thousands and thousands of people will be here to ring in 2006 Las Vegas style. 

The fireworks will be spectacular. Ten Strip hotels -- Excalibur, MGM-Grand, Monte Carlo, Ballys, Flamingo, Venetian, Treasure Island, Stardust, Circus-Circus, and Stratosphere -- will shoot them off their rooftops.

There will be plenty of parties along the Las Vegas Strip and downtown at the Fremont Street Experience. Hotels on and around the Strip are quickly filling up as New Year's Eve approaches. But celebrating there can be expensive. 

Eyewitness News on to vegas.com and found rooms at the Venetian are going for $600 a night for New Year's Eve night. But that's not all. Parties can be pricey too. 

The Wynn's new nightclub, Tryst, will make its debut Saturday night. Tickets start at a $100 for women and $150 for men. That will get you through the door without waiting in line. Las Vegas will be the place to be New Year's weekend. 

We'll have the world's largest wine toast downtown, great entertainment, dining and more. So, if you want to be where the action is -- Las Vegas is where it's for this New Year's weekend.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitor's Authority expects to see more visitors this year than in 2004. 

You don't have be on the Strip to celebrate the arrival of 2006. Casinos all around the valley are hosting New Year's Eve parties as well.

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Just as the smoke settled from last year's New Year's Eve party, plans for America's Party 2006 got underway. The year of planning is about to pay off. 

It's estimated that about 300,000 people will ring in the new year on the Strip this coming Saturday. Fireworks will be dancing atop 10 different hotel/casinos and the world's largest toast will take place on Freemont Street. 

If you don't want to fight the crowds, you can have the best seat in the house by watching Channel 3's New Year's Eve coverage. Our live, Emmy-award winning coverage starts at 11P.M. 

Our main location this year is out at the Frontier Casino where they're throwing a big party. KJUL 104.7 will be broadcasting live from 8 to 10. Then, at 10, the Las Vegas Players take over the band stand playing all your favorite hits. 

U.S. Rings in New Year With Parties, Fireworks 

By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY 
Associated Press Writer

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Fireworks rained over the Las Vegas Strip as hundreds of thousands of revelers rang in 2006 with quickie weddings, parties at posh nightclubs and what organizers hoped was the world's largest simultaneous toast - 14,000 Chardonnay-filled plastic glasses raised just before midnight.

"Las Vegas knows how to throw a party," Mayor Oscar Goodman said at the annual blowout, billed as the largest New Year's Eve party outside New York's Times Square.

Hours earlier in Manhattan, a 76-year-old Dick Clark returned to television for the first time since suffering a stroke, saying from a studio above Times Square, "I wouldn't have missed this for the world."

The numbers 2018 lit up over Times Square and confetti clouded the air, while the massive crowd stretching more than 10 blocks up Broadway and the surrounding streets sang "Auld Lang Syne."

In New Orleans, after a festive jazz funeral procession in memory of Hurricane Katrina's victims, the city celebrated the end of a devastating year with concerts in the French Quarter and the lowering of a giant gumbo pot - a Cajun twist on New York's Waterford crystal ball.

As the countdown began, Mayor Ray Nagin asked the thousands gathered to "just take a moment to remember all those people who did not make it to 2006."

Further north, Boston honored the hurricane-ravaged New Orleans with Marti Gras-themed festivities. The "Spirit of New Orleans" parade featured carnival masks, and jazz bands joined in.

Organizers estimated more than a million people were in Boston to celebrate the new year, despite forecasts of 2 to 4 inches of snow and lows in the 20s. Car horns honked across the city, where ice sculptures, parades, parties and fireworks kicked off the annual First Night celebration.

The public square was quieter in Los Angeles, where a concert party expected to draw 20,000 revelers to six downtown blocks was canceled hours before its scheduled start. Fire officials said they had safety concerns as a drenching storm moved through the region.

"It was just pouring rain and it looked like it was going to continue," Dave Dean, organizer of the Giant Village bash. "Something terrible could have happened. I'm just devastated."

The Black Eyed Peas, Death Cab for Cutie and other groups were scheduled to perform; organizers said they would hold a makeup event.

Flooding from new storms in the West also forced Reno, Nev., to postpone its New Year's Eve fireworks until Monday.

In Vegas, gusts of 30 mph and scattered showers threatened cancel the $500,000 firework display, complete with 40,000 devices and 10 rooftop launching pads.

But the skies cleared and winds calmed, allowing the show to light up the Strip for 8 minutes after midnight.

"This skyline was looking good tonight," said producer Phil Grucci. "It was in its finest glory."

Downtown revelers also attempted to break the Guinness world record for the largest simultaneous toast with 200 cases of Chardonnay. Others sought more exclusive gatherings, paying a $200 cover to ring in the new year at Wynn Las Vegas' newest posh nightclub, Tryst.

Business was also brisk at downtown's Wee Kirk O' the Heather wedding chapel.

Newlyweds Rick Hanson, 36, and Kiarra Hansen, 45, said they came from Farmington, Utah to tie the knot.

"It's a new moon and a new day and the start of new year," Hansen said.

---

Associated Press writers Andrew Ryan in Boston, Cain Burdeau in New Orleans and Desmond Butler in New York contributed to this report.

2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A massive street party, fireworks from casino rooftops and the music of 
Frank, Sammy and Elvis will all be part of New Years Eve celebrations in Las Vegas.

"Were ending our centennial year with a bang, literally," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman 
said with a nod to the planned midnight fireworks show and the finale to Sin City's 
yearlong 100th anniversary.

Last year, Las Vegas drew 293,000 visitors to its nearly 111,000 hotel rooms for a Friday 
night New Years Eve -- the fifth year of a Strip fireworks show that organizers have 
dubbed "Americas Party."

Event officials and contractor Fireworks by Grucci says this years $500,000 pyrotechnics 
show will feature more than 40,000 shells fired from the top of 10 hotel-casinos along the 
six-kilometre Strip.

A soundtrack for the display will include songs by Vegas icons Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, 
Sammy Davis Jr., Liberace, Elvis Presley and Tom Jones.

The downtown Fremont Street Experience pedestrian-casino mall plans to feature live music 
and entertainment.

"Las Vegas does it bigger and better than anyone and we are going to set another world 
record,? says Mayor Goodman, Chairman of the Centennial Commission, who will lead the 
toast. ``This has been a phenomenal Centennial year and this event will ensure that 2005 
goes out with a bang."

New Year's Eve will mark the official end of the Las Vegas Centennial Celebration, which 
showcased hundreds of events throughout 2005 including the World’s Largest Birthday Cake, 
the resurrection of the historic Helldorado Days Parade and ``Once Upon 100 Weddings.?

The city, lauded for its over-the-top celebrations, will kick into high gear about 10 p.m. 
on New Year's Eve as BV Wines begins registering an estimated 12,000 ticketed adults who 
will raise their glasses moments before the strike of midnight. The Fremont Street 
Experience Viva Vision LED Display system will provide an official countdown to the 
World's Largest Toast.

"New Year's Eve in Las Vegas is one of the biggest parties in the world, so it seems only 
fitting that we commemorate the occasion with the World's Largest Toast," says Terry 
Jicinsky, senior vice president of marketing, LVCVA. "This is the perfect opportunity to 
salute Las Vegas and the New Year in an extraordinary way." 

The group toast will occur in a cordoned outdoor area that will also feature live musical 
acts, hotel sponsored bars and a light and laser show at midnight. Participants must be 21 
and older with proof of identification and pay $40 to obtain a fluorescent-colored wrist 
band and gain access to the toasting area.

"New Year's Eve on Fremont Street is a fantastic party and the Fremont Street Experience 
is thrilled to be the host for the World's Largest Toast," said Joe Schillaci, president 
and CEO of the Fremont Street Experience. "What better backdrop for this once-in-a-
lifetime event than Fremont Street, the heart of downtown Las Vegas where it all began 100 
years ago."

Las Vegas?toast will attempt to outdo the current record of a 10,079 person toast, which 
is held by a Japanese Sake company. In order to officially break the record, all pre-
qualified participants must raise their glass in unison and drink at the same time. A 
Guinness World Records adjudicator will attend the event to ensure the record is carried 
out according to the guidelines provided. It may take Guinness 12 weeks or longer to 
determine eligibility and authentication. 


ABOUT THE LVCVA

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) is charged with marketing Southern 
Nevada as a tourism and convention destination worldwide, and also with operating the Las 
Vegas Convention Center and Cashman Center. With more than 133,000 hotel rooms in Las 
Vegas alone and 9 million square feet of meeting and exhibit space citywide, the LVCVA's 
mission centers on attracting ever-increasing numbers of leisure and business visitors to 
the area. For additional destination information, go to www.VisitLasVegas.com or 
www.LVCVA.com. 

Revelers pour into Las Vegas to toast New Year
LAS VEGAS (AP) ¡X And you thought your relatives were a handful. 
City officials, boosters and residents are braced to entertain 300,000 out-of-town guests for a New Year's blowout ¡X an annual experiment in champagne and crowd control. 

On the agenda this year is a scheme to break the Guinness world record for the largest simultaneous toast, a smattering of promised celebrity sightings and velvet-rope parties, and a pyrotechnic show with a $500,000 price tag. 

"We do everything to excess in Las Vegas," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said Friday. 

Last year's party brought 293,000 people and event planners are expecting more Saturday. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates that 98% of the area's hotel rooms are booked. The bureau says the one-night party should generate $187 million ¡X not counting gambling. 

Celebrations will range from high brow to accessible. 

Wynn Las Vegas, the Strip's newest luxury hotel, will celebrate the opening of Tryst, a nightclub with its own 90-foot waterfall and secluded lagoon. For $2,000, clubgoers get a VIP table for up to 10 people and a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne. Non-VIPs will pay a cover charge of $100 for women and $150 for men, about five times the standard fee. 

At Caesars Palace, the nightclub Pure is promising to deliver celebrity clubgirl Nicky Hilton and her boyfriend Kevin Connolly, the star of HBO's "Entourage." Kid Rock is scheduled to appear at the opening of Jet, the Bellagio hotel-casino's latest club. 

At the Fremont Street Experience downtown, $40 will get partygoers a ticket to see the 90's pop groups The Gin Blossoms and Cheap Trick, and a commemorative plastic wineglass filled with 2004 Beaulieu Vineyard Chardonnay. 

The Napa winery supplied 200 cases of the wine for the big toast, which must see more than 10,081 people drink in unison to seize the "world's largest" title from a Japanese sake maker, winery spokeswoman Pip Jones said. 

The company chose the wine for its mass appeal and easy cleanup. 

"Chardonnay doesn't stain, a great thing on New Year's," she said. 

Law enforcement officials are preparing to ramp up security to handle the revelry. Hotels will increase private security forces and six Nevada National Guard units will be on call. 

Police are warning people who pack the Strip for the New Year's countdown not to bring bottles or cans, and say large bags or knapsacks are subject to search. Traffic will be barred on the Strip after 6 p.m. and nearby freeway exits will be closed. 

The Clark County Fire Department says it will have 100 additional people on duty, and officials will watch the skies for rain and wind, both of which could extinguish the fireworks display. The National Weather Service predicts a partly cloudy and windy evening. If gusts exceed 10 mph, the show will be delayed or canceled, fire department spokesman Bob Leinbach said. 

"We all want to see them go off, it's a spectacular show. But if the conditions are not amenable to safety, we simply can't allow them to go," he said. 

That would put a damper on the biggest New Year's fireworks display on earth, said Phil Grucci, of Fireworks by Grucci, the show's New York-based producer. 

With 40,000 devices, 10 rooftop launching pads and 75 pyrotechnicians coordinating the explosions, the Las Vegas show will be five times as big as the one Grucci produces in New York's Times Square. Las Vegas Events, a not-for-profit agency funded by a tax on hotel rooms, foots the bill. 

With a nod to the city's yearlong centennial celebration, the show will be choreographed to the tunes of such classic Las Vegas crooners as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Grucci said he looks forward most to his favorite firework, "The Grucci Golden Flitter Split Comet." 

If all goes without a hitch, Grucci signature "golden milky way" will shower down on the Strip timed to Sinatra's "Luck Be a Lady Tonight."