New Year's Eve Guide

Welcome to the first weekly summary of New Year’s Eve news, updates, events and annoucements for the week. This is the place for news that we weren’t able to fit into it’s own post, but is relevant to New Years Eve nonetheless.

Ypsilanti’s New Year Jubilee will be discontinued, organizers say [Ann Arbor News]
The New Year Jubilee of Southeastern Michigan, held for the past 15 years in Ypsilanti to help revelers ring in the new year in an alcohol-free, family-friendly way, will be discontinued.  Dwindling funds, losing two large venues to hold activities and bad weather were among the factors that went into the decision to close down the annual celebration, said Lynda Hummel, who has coordinated the event for several years. (full story)

NIAGARA FALLS: Holiday lights extends to new years [Niagra Gazette]
The City of Niagara Falls will host a family friendly New Year’s Eve celebration at Hyde Park this year thanks to the help of the United Way of Niagara and Seneca Niagara Casino and Hotel. This year’s event will kick off with a fireworks display on Nov. 26 and will end Dec. 31 with a family fun night that will also include fireworks as well as games for children and an appearance by the band, A List. The closing event is being sponsored by the Seneca Niagara Casino. (full story)

Selling New Year’s trips for Russians is standing still [Baltic Business News]
Looks like the financial crisis is affecting everyone as BBN reports, “Last year 80 pct of New Year’s trips for Russians were sold by November, this year the percentage is 5. Russia is panicking that worldwide crisis is going to repeat terrifying events of 1998’s crisis. They dare to go abroad only for a weekend, but are scared to take a trip that lasts for a week…” (full story)

Patti Smith Confirms New Years Shows [Relix]
Punk/poet Patti Smith will once again ring in a new year at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. Smith has a longstanding tradition of New Year’s Eve performances at the intimate Lower East Side room and will close 2008 with performances at the venue on December 30 and 31. One of the few musicians comfortable playing everything from art galleries to dive bars on the same tour, Smith has made the Bowery Ballroom something of her hometown venue in recent years. (full story)

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]

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.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that the annual New Year’s Eve fireworks at Penn’s Landing are in danger of being cancelled due to a lack of funding, according to the show’s producer.

Last year, the city Commerce Department picked up the tab, contributing $75,000. But this year, facing a budget shortfall, the Nutter administration decided that the city couldn’t afford the fireworks.

“We would love to have fireworks on New Year’s Eve at Penn’s Landing,” City Representative Melanie Johnson said. “However, the city, like the rest of the country, has less revenue to work with this year. So in order to proceed with fireworks, we’ll need to find other funding sources.”

With the current economic crisis, could this further affect tourism and hotel vacancies?  Full story after the jump.

- Funding loss threatens New Year’s fireworks [The Philadelphia Inquirer]

UPDATE (12/3/08): Funding has been secured!  Penn’s Landing Corporation announced today that it has secured funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, Penn’s Landing Corporation and private corporate sponsors PRWT Services, Inc., the Hyatt Regency Philadelphia and the Moshulu, to save the fireworks traditionally scheduled on New Year’s Eve.

- Penn’s Landing Corporation Secures Funding to Preserve Fireworks on New Year’s Eve, an 18-Year Tradition