Combine Las Vegas and New Year's Eve and there will be about as much subtlety as there were clothes on the showgirls that flanked Mayor Oscar Goodman on Thursday.
This year's party, which will also end the city's centennial celebration, will attempt to out-Vegas what has been an over-the-top annual event since 2001.
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Officials promise a bigger and better fireworks show, as well as a goal of getting 12,000 people to simultaneously toast in 2006 together.
If successful in getting the lushes to tip wine glasses at the Fremont Street Experience it would set a new Guinness World Record for the world's largest toast. The previous record was 10,079 sake drinkers, the mayor said, though officials from Guinness could not be reached for comment.
Goodman stood on stage at the Fashion Show Mall on Thursday with a martini glass in his hand and the showgirls on either side.
"We're going to have 11,999 people drinking (Beaulieu Vineyard) wine, and one mayor drinking his usual booze," he said, raising his glass. The news conference closed with fireworks sparkling behind the officials as TV cameras rolled.
On the big day, about 40,000 fireworks will be shot off of 10 hotel rooftops, stretching out over five miles of the Strip.
The tops of the hotels will also light up with pyrotechnics to the tune of Liberace's "Chopsticks."
"The Strip will become a giant piano," said Phil Grucci, executive vice-president of Fireworks by Grucci and the designer of the show. They've also come up with neon-colored fireworks for the finale, which will erupt to Elvis' "Viva Las Vegas."
"There are more effects, different effects. Every year we have to beat ourselves," Grucci said.
Except for some smaller ones, most of the fireworks will be shot straight up in the air to limit fire hazards, said Kurt Gottschalk, Clark County deputy fire marshal.
"We're doing the best we can to make sure this is a safe event," he said. In early November, Grucci and fire agencies held a simulation run and fire officials weeded out any explosives they thought might be dangerous.
The toast will be at 11:50 p.m. on Dec. 31, under the canopy on Fremont Street. But being a part of history, no matter how irrelevant, comes at a price: It will cost $40 to get in to the downtown venue. Cheap Trick, the Gin Blossoms and Spin Doctors will also be playing.
The Strip will be closed off to street traffic as well.
The event costs about $500,000 to produce. An estimated 300,000 visitors will spend New Year's Eve in Las Vegas, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Also for the first time, there will be official merchandise for sale, celebrating what organizers like to call "America's Party."
