Local leaders welcome New Year’s fun-seekers

With smiling showgirls, a mini-fireworks blast and falling confetti, local leaders welcomed fun-seekers to Las Vegas to ring in 2008.

"Las Vegas throws a party better than any place in the world, and we're going to prove it again on New Year's Eve," Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said Tuesday at a news conference in the Fashion Show mall.

The highlight of America's Party: Las Vegas New Year 2008 will be the fireworks show over the Strip and the thousands of revelers crammed onto Las Vegas Boulevard.

The theme of the show is "The Best is Yet to Come" and will feature swing and big band tunes while the pyrotechnics blast from seven hotel rooftops.

Fireworks by Grucci, which produced the 2006 show, will use 50 technicians to set up an 8 minute, 20 second show. The company created several new fireworks for this year's show, including one that buzzes like bees in the sky, company president Donna Grucci Butler said.

"It's hard to be your own competitor each year," she said. "You have to make it better and better and better."

Company and county Fire Department officials will be watching the weather closely on New Year's Eve, as sustained winds of 10 mph or more would cancel the fireworks.

"We're just hoping for good weather," Deputy Fire Chief Girard Page said.

The celebration at the Fremont Street Experience will include musical performances by the Doobie Brothers and the Bangles.

Terry Jicinsky of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority touted Las Vegas as the place to catch top-notch entertainment, including Jay-Z, Beyonce and Van Halen.

"When you really think of where to party all weekend, Las Vegas is the choice," he said.

The roughly 300,000 tourists coming to Las Vegas for the celebration were expected to spend about $211 million in non-gaming revenue, he said.

Those numbers could grow in the next couple of years as another 40,000 hotel rooms should be completed by 2010, bringing the total to 170,000, he said.

For more information visit www.americasparty2008.com.

Contact reporter Brian Haynes at bhaynes@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0281.