Donna O'Neill, left, and Michelle Cerra, both of New Jersey, dance and sing on New Year's Eve as music plays beneath the canopy at the Fremont Street Experience.Photo by John Locher. New Year's Eve revelers Nicoleta Domitro, left, and Mia Hauer of Toronto brace themselves against the wind and rain Saturday on the Strip. Photo by K.M. Cannon. John Brockman, left, and Nathan Ryder, right, (both with arms in the air) dance to live music beneath the canopy at the Fremont Street Experience. Photo by John Locher. Glen and Jennifer Saggus of Mesa, Ariz., enjoy nachos Saturday in front of the Boardwalk Casino. Photo by Jeff Scheid. People gather as music plays beneath the canopy at the Fremont Street Experience on New Year's Eve. Photo by John Locher.

Neither wind nor rain nor the chance the Strip would skip its annual fireworks show kept scores of revelers from packing Las Vegas Valley streets and resorts for Saturday night's New Year's Eve bash.

As many as 300,000 people were expected to line Las Vegas Boulevard -- which was closed to traffic from Russell Road to Sahara Avenue -- to welcome in 2006 with booze, bustle and bravado. Nearly 16,000 folks jammed downtown's Fremont Street Experience.

"We're just here to have fun. We're not worried about the rain," said Rene Ramirez of Fresno, Calif., who was sharing a room at the New Frontier hotel with eight friends.

Winds that gusted to 46 mph during the day threatened the planned eight-minute fireworks show, which required winds of less than 10 mph to safely launch more than 40,000 skyrockets from the rooftops of 10 Strip hotels at midnight.

Just before midnight, winds had calmed to 7 mph at the National Weather Service's Las Vegas office and 12 mph at McCarran International Airport, allowing the show to go on without a hitch.

The fireworks were just a bonus to some Stripgoers.

"It would be disappointing if they (the fireworks) don't happen, but hey, it's New Year's, it's Vegas, it's still a party," Bill Johnson of Riverside, Calif., who trekked along with his family from their room at the Four Queens downtown to the New Frontier to find a prime fireworks-viewing spot on the Strip, said before midnight.

The last time Las Vegas celebrated a New Year's without fireworks was Jan. 1, 2000, when Y2K fears scotched plans for skyrockets.

A year ago, the New Year's 2005 fireworks show decision also came down to the wire amid strong winds. Fireworks were launched on time and without incident.

A lingering drizzle that fell across much of the valley throughout the afternoon and past sunset didn't affect the fireworks call. McCarran International Airport recorded 0.01 inch of rain, the first measurable rainfall here on a Dec. 31 since 1943, the weather service said.

Rain or not, Larry and Yvonne Lew from Jackson, Miss., were set on partying the night away at Gilley's Bar in the New Frontier, far from their hotel room in Mesquite.

In Mesquite, the couple got what they believed to be the last available hotel room in Southern Nevada, at a Best Western. They came to Gilley's after hearing about a party there on the radio.

"This is all by chance," Larry Lew said. "Nothing was by design."

Compared to the country-and-western-clad crowd at the New Frontier, things were decidedly more highbrow across the Strip at Wynn Las Vegas, which hosted its first New Year's celebration.

Among those drawing double-takes at the new resort was Chance Fuller, 2, who was decked out in a tuxedo. The Las Vegas child was there -- along with his mom, dad, and baby sister -- for his uncle's wedding Saturday night at the hotel.

In Wynn's atrium area, Californians Helen Lee and Phisa Nguyen asked passers-by to take their pictures.

"This is the place to be," said Lee, who was making her first New Year's trip to Las Vegas. "We're going to meet up with some friends, watch the fireworks and then try to get into some clubs."

While Wynn ramped up for its first New Year's bash, the Boardwalk celebrated its last. It is slated to close for demolition in just over one week.

"Are they going to implode it tonight?" asked John Delio, a first-time Las Vegas visitor, who admitted to having consumed "several" rum and Cokes by 7 p.m.

In the casino's gift shop, Linda Tijerina, daughter of late longtime Boardwalk executive Norbert Jansen, was working at the store still owned by her 78-year-old mother, Avis Jansen.

"She's in San Diego for the weekend," Tijerina said of her mom. "I think it was too sad for her to see the last New Year's Eve here."

It was goodbye for now at the Lady Luck hotel, where longtime regulars and employees bemoaned an impending yearlong closure for remodeling.

"It sucks," said Ed Morgan, a regular from Pennsylvania. He said after it reopens, it probably won't have the same atmosphere or the same friendly employees that he likes.

"We don't even know if it's going to be called Lady Luck," he said.

Two cocktail waitresses, one who had worked at the Lady Luck for 15 years and the other for 20 years, met the end with resignation.

The 15-year veteran said she was moving out of state anyway. But, "we'd grown up together," she said.

Said the 20-year veteran: "Everything comes to an end."

At the nearby Fremont Street Experience, which was hosting its 10th New Year's Eve, a countdown to midnight and intermittent light shows were displayed on the overhead canopy.

"And the wind can't cancel ours," Joe Schillaci, president and chief executive of the Fremont Street Experience, said earlier in the night.

Not that anyone on Fremont Street was rooting against their glitzier neighbors on the Strip. "We hope the fireworks go on," Schillaci said before midnight. "Vegas is the place to be on New Year's. We just offer a more controlled environment."

Also downtown, people participated in the "Toast of the Century," billed as the world's largest toast to cap Las Vegas' 2005 centennial celebration.

Not only were organizers hoping that 12,000 people would hoist a glass, led by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, they were also counting on some self-control. Organizers, who said they won't know for about a week if they have set a new world record, started giving out wine for the toast at 9:30 p.m. in small lid-covered plastic cups.

Restraint wasn't part of the plan for some Cheap Trick fans, who by 6:45 p.m. had staked out the prime spots directly in front of one of the stages where the band was scheduled to play, three hours hence.

"Where they go, we will follow," said Daria Brooks, who was waiting with her sister, Claire. She said the $40 cover charge to get on Fremont Street was worth it -- for Cheap Trick.

The two Angelinos were clad in sweaters covered by rain ponchos, which flapped in the wind. But they weren't budging to get a cocktail or a hot cup of coffee. "Somebody might take my spot," Daria Brooks said.

Cheap Trick was far from the only music act in town. Kanye West, Rob Thomas and Matchbox Twenty, Hootie & The Blowfish, the Goo Goo Dolls, Gin Blossoms and Spin Doctors were among the groups performing Saturday night.

The holiday also saw a proliferation of celebrity-hosted parties open to the public -- for a three-figure fee, of course -- at Strip resorts.

Among this year's celebrity hosts were heiress Paris Hilton at The Venetian and her sister, Nicky Hilton, at Caesars Palace; rock star Kid Rock at The Mirage; and actress Shannon Elizabeth at Treasure Island.

While throngs partied, New Year's Eve was a sober work night for scores of security guards hoping to keep post-9/11 threats at bay.

About 300 Nevada National Guard members were on duty throughout the valley and will continue working through Monday to provide beefed-up security over the holiday weekend. The Guard also had helicopters flying over the Strip to provide aerial views of the crowds Saturday night and into this morning, said Capt. April Conway, a spokeswoman for the Guard.

"This doesn't mean there was a higher threat this year. It's just how it's done post-9/11, just in case. Metro (police) and the other law enforcement agencies like having extra pairs of eyes looking out for anything suspicious," Conway said.

Among the places where guardsmen were stationed included all area airports and the openings to the large drainage tunnels that run under the Strip, such as one that goes from Dean Martin Drive at Tropicana Avenue to Harmon Avenue at Paradise Road.

At just after midnight, Las Vegas police on the Strip had tallied 26 arrests for minor infractions.

"Up to this point it has gone smoothly," Sgt. Chris Jones of Las Vegas police said.

Review-Journal writers Lynnette Curtis, Brian Haynes, Antonio Planas, David McGrath Schwartz and Howard Stutz contributed to this story.