Main free Boston events
Highlights:
Boston will host many public events on Friday, December 31, 1999, including poetry readings, dance parties, orchestra performances and two fireworks displays. In addition to the midnight fireworks finale over Boston Harbor, a special fireworks display is planned for 7 p.m. (when the year 2000 hits Greenwich Mean Time) at the Boston Common.
Walk the city in between these two fireworks displays to see Boton's buildings covered in vivid colors and lights. LIGHTmotif2000 uses large-scale projections, skytrackers and robotic lighting to illuminate the buildings and streets near the Boston Public Library, the Waterfront, The Christian Science Center and the Skybridge connecting Copley Place and the Prudential Center. Other areas of the city will also be adorned. The City Hall Plaza will exhibit First Light 2000, a collection of 200 ice-sculpted candles, one for each decade of the last 2000 years. And one of North America's largest ice sculptures will be on display at Boston Common's Frog Pond; Stargate 2000 will depict Father Time's chariot passing through any icy gate into the new millennium.
The Back Bay area will play host to several high-energy events. Boston Public Library hosts Big Night at the Bookhouse, a program of readings, performance poems, light sculptures, contemporary dance, world music and participatory events. Right down the street, dancers and drummers will be living it up at Hynes Convention Center. At the Millennium Dance Party, live bands will play everything from swing and country to alternative and Latin rhythms. In the Auditorium, catch interactive drumming workshops, drumming circles and percussive performances at Drumming Central and the Percussion Procession.
After taking in the New Year's Eve sights and activities, listen to two very different musical performances. The first performance - Y2K Pops! - is put on by 101 personal computers of various types and vintages that play classical, popular and sci-fi themed music. In a test of the Y2K bug, some or all of the musical computers may (or may not) crash right before the audience in Boston Common. The second, more-traditional performance will be presented by the Boston Pops. Boston Pops Live will broadcast from Symphony Hall on two gigantic Jumbotron screens at City Hall Plaza. At the climax of the concert, Conductor Keith Lockhart and Mayor Thomas M. Menino will lead audiences in an interactive countdown to the Year 2000. At the triumphant moment, Boston's first fireworks display of the year 2000 will light up the night sky.
