New Year's Eve Guide

Want to take a look at the New York City New Years Eve Ball?  Head on over to Macy’s in NYC where the 2008 New Year’s ball is now on display as part of Macy’s 100th anniversary celebration.  The 2008 ball has 672 Waterford crystal triangles, 9,657 Phillip Lexicon LEDs and can create millions of colors.

The 2009 Times Square New Years ball has not yet been unveiled, but officials are promising it will outshine previous ones. Each panel will have an angel etched on it to celebrate this year’s New Year’s Eve theme, “Let There Be Joy.”  A vide from Macy’s is available on the NY1 web site below.

- New Year’s Eve Ball On Display In Macy’s [NY1]

Want a crazy New Year’s Eve party?  Look no further than the 4 day Hogmanay festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. EdinburghGuide.com is reporting that the Hogmanay festival has just announced it’s 4 day line up which includes chart-topping dance music act Groove Armada, a torchlight procession, a free dance party event, Family Hoog, street performances, candelight concert, film premier, triathlon and more. Now that’s what we call a party!

They report:

Over 100,000 revellers are expected to attend this year’s festival, which also includes four live music stages, each with a separate musical style.  The Waverley Stage is headlined by Glasvegas, supported by The Complete Stone Roses, Attic Lights and Broken Records.  The Scott Monument Stage brings a more Scottish flavour with the Peatbog Faeries, supported by Moishie’s Bagel, Burach and Watergaw.  The Mound Stage offers a more pop-flavoured line-up with the Great Calverto playing alongside Michelle McManus and the Concrete Jungle Collective.  The West End DJ Stage, new in 2008-2009 Hogmanay, brings DJ sets from Hot Chip, Belle & Sebastian and B-Side & the Bandit (resident DJ at Sugarbeat).

In addition, the Mound Precinct space gets kitsch this year with a new ticketed event, Boogie Wonderland, that pays homage to DISCO, showcasting 70s tribute bands including an exclusive Silent Disco, all hosted by Forth One DJ ‘Boogie.’

The full list of events is available on their site below.

- Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Reveals 4-Day New Year Party Programme [Edinburgh Guide]

photo credit: EdinburghGuide.com

Want to know what New Year’s Eve in Miami is like? Take a look at this video of Mansion and Prive nightclubs in South Beach from last year. This party featured the “in” crowd and was hosted by Wilmer Valderrama, Travis Barker, K-Fed, Shaq and Nick Cannon.

Big news for Carson “I’m Not a Tool” Daly as NBC is reporting that the host of “Last Call With Carson Daly” is getting a primetime spot for his “NBC’s New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly” show that will feature performances by 50 Cent, Ludacris, and Kate Perry. It will all be broadcast in HDTV as well.  You can read the full press release here:

LIVE PERFORMACES BY CHART-TOPPING ARTISTS 50 CENT, LUDACRIS AND KATY PERRY RING IN THE NEW YEAR WITH CARSON DALY WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31 ON NBC

Fifth Annual Live “NBC’s New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly” To Be Broadcast For the First Time With 1 Hour Airing in Primetime and 1 Hour in Late Night All in High Definition

Universal City, CA – November 3, 2008 – “NBC’s New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly” will once again feature the biggest names in music with this year’s performers Ludacris, 50 Cent and Katy Perry bringing their unique sound to New York City as Carson Daly rings in the New Year on Wednesday, December 31. The show promises to give viewers the experience of being in the middle of the world’s most famous New Year’s Eve destination, Times Square, and for the first time will be broadcast beginning in primetime from 10-11 p.m. (ET) and continuing in late night from 11:35 p.m. – 12:35 a.m. in high definition. The announcement was made today by Rick Ludwin, Executive Vice President, Late Night & Primetime Series.

“NBC’s Carson Daly New Year’s Eve tradition has increased its rating each year it’s been on the air,” said Ludwin. “Viewers clearly like what Carson is doing. The additional hour in prime time makes our audience even more a part of this New Year’s Eve party.”

Perry, whose smash hit “I Kissed A Girl” was the #1 single in 20 countries including the US where it dominated the Billboard charts at #1 for seven weeks, and whose follow up single “Hot N Cold” is Top 5 in both sales and airplay as well as the #2 most viewed video premiere of all time on MySpace, will perform songs from her RIAA gold certified album One Of The Boys. 50 Cent, who has sold more than 22 million albums and has received numerous awards and 11 Grammy nominations throughout his career, will perform songs from his upcoming fourth studio release, Before I Self Destruct. Ludacris is a multi-platinum Grammy Award winning rap artist and actor. He will be performing his single “One More Drink” featuring T-Pain from his long-awaited release Theater of the Mind, which comes out Nov. 25th. Theater of the Mind follows up Grammy-winning RIAA platinum Release Therapy #1 debut of 2006, with #1 singles “Runaway Love” featuring Mary J. Blige, and RIAA platinum “Money Maker” featuring Pharrell Williams.

In addition to the musical lineup, Carson will have help bringing the celebration to the home audience with Saturday “Today” co-anchor Amy Robach giving live reports from Times Square. Along with Robach, NBC News correspondent Luke Russert will join the broadcast this year.

“The network gave us a huge vote of confidence by asking us to expand into primetime,” said Daly. “We’ve got great music with 50 Cent, Katy Perry, Ludacris. It’s gonna be a huge show, bigger than the Beijing Olympics and if it’s not, I apologize.”

In 2007, 8 million viewers tuned in to watch “NBC’s New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly.” It was the highest rated NBC New Year’s Eve special in six years, continuing the yearly upward trend for the special.

“NBC’s New Year’s Eve with Carson Daly” is executive-produced by Daly (“Last Call with Carson Daly”) and David Friedman (“Last Call with Carson Daly”, “Last Comic Standing”, “Rosie Live”) through Universal Media Studios. Guy Oseary (“Last Call with Carson Daly”) also serves as co-executive producer.