The Las Vegas New Year's Eve party used to be inside, and then it moved outdoors. Now technology and the dawn of a new decade bring the inside out, with a new sense of equality, writes Las Vegas Review-Journal today. For all the discussion on the latest pictures, interviews, videos and updates from the event go to the Coldplay Live forum now. Read on for the full preview...
If you didn't pony up $5,600 per couple to see Coldplay and Jay-Z when you still could buy in, clip a six-pack to your belt. The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas will use its 65-foot digital sign to broadcast the night's biggest show to the crowds who gather outdoors on the Strip. "This is a really special moment for The Cosmopolitan, and I think we really want to celebrate that," says Lisa Marchese, who oversees brand marketing for the freshly minted hotel. "I think we have one opportunity to really introduce ourselves to Las Vegas."
This technological bridge is a fitting cap to a decade that charted the rise of the nightclubs in direct correlation to the fall of ticketed concerts and ballroom dinner-dance affairs, which were the Strip's main attraction to the very end of the 1990s. Today's countdown also marks a full decade of the free fireworks that began in 2000, after Las Vegas came off as a big fizzle in worldwide coverage of the "millennium" celebrations of 1999. It seemed to help. About 310,000 are expected this year, compared with 260,000 for the 1999 party (which, it must be noted, also was hampered by price gouging and "Y2K bug" concerns).
Once the free fireworks took over, concert headliners accustomed to being the center of attention for midnight countdowns were surprised to see people head for the exits as the midnight hour approached. Even big stars who just might be in the neighborhood and willing to risk rejection -- say, Jay-Z's spouse Beyonce -- have learned they're more appreciated other times of the year. "We didn't need her New Year's," Wynn Las Vegas chairman Steve Wynn says of his declining an offer by Beyonce's management to perform today. "I want Beyonce at an off-peak time, so I can make an event out of it," Wynn says. "When we had her in the summer (of 2009), I picked the worst week of the summer, and she blew the lid off the place. All my customers came, and we had huge casino activity."
Today, they are here anyway. And they always have been on Dec. 31, whatever the year. In the pre-fireworks era, Las Vegas specialized in arena concerts (including, presciently, both Cher and Bette Midler in 1999) and dinner-show combos for older customers: As late as 1999, it was Wayne Newton in the Stardust showroom and the Guy Lombardo Orchestra in the ballroom. In the past decade, players club marketing has become so refined that shows in that realm mostly have become parties for invited customers.
Nightclubs still were an emerging force in 2000. Now they rule the roost and offer their own star power. Rihanna may or may not actually sing at Pure -- club officials are giving her the option -- while Kim Kardashian probably should be encouraged not to croon at Tao (see Sounds for a rundown on nightclub attractions). Here's how more of the madness breaks down:
Pyrotechnics
"America's Party 2011" is again a synchronized show by Fireworks By Grucci, offering 50,000 effects in eight minutes. The launch points are the rooftops of the same casinos as last year: MGM Grand, Planet Hollywood Resort, Aria, Caesars Palace, The Venetian, Treasure Island and Stratosphere. Las Vegas police announced Tuesday that the Strip, between Sahara Avenue and Russell Road, will close to vehicular traffic at 6:30 p.m. today.
Coldplay and Jay-Z
It seems an unlikely alliance, the American hip-hop mogul and the British soft-rock heartthrobs of suburban soccer moms. But these two have a history. Coldplay singer Chris Martin guested on "Beach Chair" on Jay-Z's "Kingdom Come" album. The band in turn hosted him on an alternate version of the song "Lost" in 2008, and they performed it together on the Grammy Awards the next year. "Launching a new brand, opening a new property at the center of the Strip is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I think John (Unwin, the hotel's CEO) treats it as such," The Cosmopolitan's Marchese said of an event mostly for invited guests, and therefore not expected to pencil out beyond its publicity value. However, showing the concert to the huddled masses on the casino's 65-foot digital marquee is something "I think you'll see over the next year we're going to do a lot. As much as possible really," she added.
Oddly enough, of the two celebrity spouses, it's Martin's wife, Gwyneth Paltrow -- not Beyonce -- who is rumored on the ever-reliable Internet to be joining the show. Specifics were vague on the concert's start time -- maybe 10 p.m., maybe 10:30 p.m. -- and whether it will include a New Year's countdown from the Chelsea ballroom, which occasionally will be converted into a concert venue during the new year.
--------------------------------------------------
Voting is closed but you can keep track of the countdown to your favourite albums of 2010:
Recommended Comments