New Years

I finally got to see the Las Vegas New Year’s Eve fireworks

Image
Fireworks above the Strip on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014, as seen from atop Trump International Tower in Las Vegas.
Photo: Tom Donoghue / DonoghuePhotography.com

My Las Vegas existence has included 13 New Year’s Eves, and none of them have included the famous fireworks display over the Strip. For this year’s big Don’t Stop the Party year-ender, I decided to break from covering an enclosed show or nightlife event and finally see what the big fuss was all about.

It nearly didn’t happen. The traffic rerouting and closures in the newspaper don’t always pan out the way they’re printed, and it took some cunning driving and navigation skills to get from home to the Cosmopolitan—where I was going to view the fireworks show, in a friend’s 59th-floor suite—a trip that took nearly an hour and a half. And this was before 7 p.m.

After eating dinner a few resorts north, we took a walk on Las Vegas Boulevard that was as brisk as the weather—I privately reminded myself to thank the host of our lofty perch for saving us from both the frozen temps and the 300,000-strong riffraff on the Strip—and returned to the Cosmopolitan. We waited and drank and grumbled about the property’s infamously terrible cell reception until 11:55 p.m., when we put our winter garb back on and stepped onto the Bellagio-facing balcony, holding both phones and plastic cups filled with Champagne.

2014 NYE: Strip Fireworks

At 11:59 p.m., fireworks prematurely began blasting above Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood, Treasure Island, the Venetian and the Stratosphere (with MGM Grand and Aria surely awash in colorful bursts behind us), with almost every member of our party looking at their phones and then one another in bewilderment. Awkwardness eventually led to hugs and kisses as 2015 officially began, my fixed gaze on the pyro briefly thwarted so I could smooch my boyfriend (who braved the shoulder-to-shoulder Strip crowd and narrowly made it to the Cosmo on time). For the next seven minutes, we watched the show in front of us, each property rooftop triggering the same display—down to both the type and color scheme of fireworks—in impressive synchronicity, commandeered from atop the Rio by Fireworks By Grucci, which has been in charge of the big show for the past eight years.

Sadly, that synchronicity was pretty much the extent of Don’t Stop the Party’s marvel factor. For the amount of pyrotechnics used—some 80,000 rockets—it paled in comparison to a couple other NYE fireworks presentations I viewed online, especially the jawdropping one from Dubai, which was as innovative as it was spectacular. Here we were in Las Vegas, supposedly one of the best cities to celebrate New Year’s Eve, and while we watched one show live we were talking about the one we saw earlier on Facebook. Someone in our party even said they liked EDC’s nightly fireworks show better, and I couldn’t argue with them. As far as eye candy goes, this was pretty meh.

Maybe the payoff would have been greater had we been waiting for hours on the Strip, surrounded by an increasingly lively throng literally shivering in anticipation, or able to hear the musical accompaniment (though I grimace at the thought of hearing anything by Pitbull, whose program inclusion also titled the evening’s party). But I doubt it. For most of us, the fireworks show was reminiscent of a Britney Spears concert—all choreography, little artistry and no real pizzazz or surprise factor to go on about the next day, just something we could now say we experienced. I’m more likely to remember the good times and company that preceded and followed it anyway.

So with that Vegas bucket list item crossed off, if I can’t make Dubai for the next New Year’s Eve, I’ll stick to the usual bar or club.

Share
Top of Story