Las Vegas Weekly

Las Vegas rings in the New Year with a pyrotechnic orgy

An nearly nine-minute fireworks display is planned for this year.

Tom Donoghue

In the first moment of 2012, the Strip will explode. It’s all in good fun, says Mayor Carolyn Goodman. The more than 56,000 explosions planned for New Year’s Eve are actually fireworks choreographed in a nearly nine-minute bonanza known as America’s Party.

The electrifying cocktail of aerial shells and flash salutes will launch from the rooftops of eight Strip properties: MGM Grand, Aria, Planet Hollywood, Caesars Palace, Treasure Island, Venetian, Stratosphere and Tropicana. Tropicana is the newest edition to the lineup, adding nearly 15,000 effects to the audio-visual feast.

At a press conference December 14, former Mayor Oscar Goodman promised the display would be more spectacular than ever and will demonstrate the city’s gift for reinvention. But icing the icing on the already decadent cake seems pretty typical for Vegas, especially when it brings in the gawkers (and their wallets).

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority estimates that 315,000 tourists will come for New Year’s Eve, spending $192 million on accommodations, souvenirs and other sensory pleasures, and that’s without taking gaming into account. With production costs for America’s Party totaling about $500,000, that’s a decent return. And by decent, I mean holy sh*t.

The show’s music has a dance theme and ranges from LMFAO to Adele and ZZ Top. Katy Perry’s “Firework” didn’t make the cut, though this line would have been a fitting finale: “Boom, boom, boom/Even brighter than the moon, moon, moon.”