Ring in 2008 in Las Vegas
Over 300,000 additional people are expected to be in town tonight to line the Las Vegas Strip tonight.
New Year's Eve is the largest party of the year here, bigger than July 4th, with seven hotel-casinos launching and synching 30,000 fireworks from their rooftops. Like the past few years, Fireworks by Grucci is back with pyrotechnics from New York (they've staged fireworks shows at the Statue of Liberty and in Times Square) under the theme "The Best is Yet to Come."
The seven casinos hosting fireworks are Circus Circus, Stratosphere, Flamingo, Venetian (whose Palazzo is now open), Planet Hollywood, MGM Grand, and Treasure Island. Downtown Las Vegas will simulcast the fireworks on their neon canopy on Fremont Street, and will also have a concert by the Doobie Brothers and The Bangles (tickets to the concert are $60).
Four miles of Las Vegas Blvd. will be closed, in addition to side streets and ramps from I-15 to the Strip. Get to where you're going early, and plan on staying into the wee hours of 2008. Streets will be closed depending on traffic and crowd control, but somewhere between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. Las Vegas Blvd. will not reopen until 4 a.m. at the earliest.
For the only time of the year, glass bottles and metal cans are prohibited on the Strip and downtown between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Those found holding could be fined and charged with a misdemeanor.
Also, children under 18 years old will not be allowed on the Strip from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. unless with a parent or legal guardian.
Happy 2008!
