Bash will be a blast

By the time the clock strikes midnight, the Fireworks by Grucci team will have spent the better part of five days atop seven Strip hotels setting up what's billed as the largest New Year's Eve fireworks show in the world.

The 50 pyrotechnicians will have loaded and wired thousands of fireworks shells. They will have strung more than three miles of wire. They will have double- and triple-checked all of the connections.

But all that work and the months of planning could go up in smoke tonight if Mother Nature kicks up her winds.

It's something company President Donna Grucci Butler always worries about, but she hasn't had a New Year's Eve show canceled yet.

"It always calms down right before showtime," she said. "That's a lot of praying, that's what that is. We speak to the man above."

As long as the sustained winds stay under 10 mph, the fireworks will blast off above the Strip and the thousands of revelers crowded onto Las Vegas Boulevard.

Tourism officials expect about 303,000 people to visit Las Vegas to ring in 2008. Many of them will be on the Strip, where Las Vegas police will maintain their usual presence.

Nearly all of the Metropolitan Police Department's 2,300 officers will line Las Vegas Boulevard from Russell Road to Sahara Avenue to keep order at one of the largest New Year's Eve celebrations in the country. Officers on the Strip usually net about 100 arrests along the boulevard, mostly for minor crimes such as disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace.

Glass bottles and metal cans are banned along the Strip and in downtown Las Vegas from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Police will confiscate banned containers and could search large bags or backpacks suspected of holding such containers. Offenders can be charged with a misdemeanor.

Children under 18 are banned from the Strip between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m. unless accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

The first road closures will begin about 5 p.m. when the Nevada Department of Transportation shuts down Interstate 15 exits and onramps at Tropicana Avenue, Flamingo Road and Spring Mountain Road. The Tropicana and Spring Mountain exits will be open for southbound traffic heading west, Nevada Highway Patrol trooper Kevin Honea said.

Las Vegas Boulevard and all cross streets will start closing about 6 p.m. between Russell and Sahara. All closure times could change based on traffic and pedestrian volume.

Las Vegas police suggested finding alternate routes around the closures, but they warned motorists against using Frank Sinatra Drive on the west side of the Strip because of the construction and hotel employee traffic expected on the road.

Las Vegas Boulevard could reopen between 4 and 5 a.m. once county workers have swept up the trash left behind by the celebration. About 90 workers, 15 street sweepers, eight tractor-trailers and seven dump trucks will undertake the cleanup once the crowds have cleared the streets.

This year's Las Vegas New Year's Eve show will be the fourth for Fireworks by Grucci.

Grucci Butler, whose New York-based company has created New Year's Eve fireworks shows in Times Square and at the Statue of Liberty, said those locations pale in comparison to Las Vegas with its lights and glitz.

"Where else would you get a stage like this?" she said.

Review-Journal reporter Francis McCabe contributed to this report. Contact reporter Brian Haynes at bhaynes@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0281.