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Event Industry New
Year's Preview |
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Time to bust out the ridiculous hats and
noisemakers—New Year's Eve is upon us! While corporate
holiday parties are going on in various forms
(or
not going on at all), venues all over town are
pulling out the stops to get revelers to spend
their last remaining ducats of 2002 whooping it up
for 2003. Like last year, most restaurants and
clubs are opening their parties to the (paying)
public instead of hosting closed, private affairs.
Several upscale restaurants are offering special
menus with musical entertainment, and a few
parties will have big-name DJs at high-profile
event spaces.
Selling More Bang for the
Buck
"Ticket prices are basically the
same [as last year, but] this year we're spending
more money on production," says Noah
Tepperberg of Strategic
Group, who along with business partner
Jason Strauss is promoting one of the
biggest events of the night: Capitale's
New Year's Eve blowout with big-name DJs Paul
Oakenfold and Deep Dish. The evening
will have a laser light show, and guests who can't
tear themselves from Dick Clark can watch
the ABC broadcast of the ball drop in Times
Square on a big screen at the event. Tepperberg
and Strauss will also host a more exclusive,
celeb-heavy event at Tao,
which will bring in Carson Daly after his
hosting duties for MTV's New Year's
broadcast ends. Both events carry entry
fees of $200 each.
Another massive event:
Joonbug Productions will host a bash at
Guastavino's
with DJ BabyBlu. Compared to last year's
Joonbug event at 200
Fifth Club, this one promises to be more
elaborate, with Brazilian percussionists, an
enhanced menu, giant projection screens to watch
the ball drop, and top shelf open bar and
Champagne from sponsors Stolichnaya and
Perrier Jouet. The price of this year's
ticket is up only $25, to $150 for general
admission and $200 for premium tickets. According
to company president Shane Neman, the
hoopla is helping sales, and the event was
half-sold on Friday, December 13. "There's a whole
group of people who buy early and another group
who wait until the last minute," he says. "We're
about on pace with ticket sales as last
year."
This year Tavern
on the Green will host a masquerade
ball, complete with a buffet reception, open bar,
music from Joe Battaglia's 17-piece New
York Big Band, an ice sculpting demonstration by
Ice
Fantasies' Joe O'Donoghue and a
fireworks display at midnight. "We usually just do
the gala with ice sculptures and the band. This
year's masquerade is more lavish, " says Tavern
spokesman John Wedeles. As if the Tavern
wasn't already a visual spectacle, added decor
will include 750,000 holiday lights, 30,000 feet
of garland, two miles of gold rope, 4,000 yards of
red velvet, 60,000 feet of ribbon and two 14-foot
Christmas trees loaded down with 3,000 ornaments.
And the venue is selling all this for a ticket
price lower than last year's: $149, down from
$250.
The Bubble
Lounge will offer two parties on New
Year's Eve: One with a Great
Gatsby-esque theme called the Moet High
Society party with music by the Central
Park Stompers, and a late, post-midnight
party with DJ Billy Beyond. Like most
parties, Bubble Lounge is going for a flat price
that includes food, drink and music, rather than
the simple open cash bars they had last year.
For those who would like a bird's eye view
of the action in Times Square, the Marriott
Marquis' Party Within a Party event
will take over the eighth floor of the hotel with
dinner, dancing and a confetti and balloon release
at midnight. The hotel's view of the proceedings
downstairs and outside is so good that TV camera
crews broadcast live from the roof of this
event.
Restaurants and Bars Go Low
Key
Restaurants and bars all over town
are vying to be part of patrons' New Year's Eve
plans, and are offering some alluring—yet
sedate—alternatives to big, boozy parties. Alain
Ducasse at the Essex House will host a
luxe dinner that will include golden osetra caviar
and Maine lobster. Chanteuse Christine
Andreas will be back in the Bellecour Room at
Daniel,
where a special five-course gala menu with foie
gras, wild duck, black truffles and scallops will
be served. Chanterelle
will also offer a gala menu, featuring osetra
caviar, Kumamoto oysters, lobster, foie gras and
venison. And the ever-swank 21
Club will host a black-tie bash with a
seven-course dinner and music by the Manhattan
Swing Orchestra.
Danny Meyer's
restaurants will lay low for New Year's: Union
Square Cafe and Gramercy
Tavern will close for the evening, but
Eleven
Madison Park will keep its doors open with
its regular menu for the first time in two years.
Tabla
will offer its regular a la carte service and
a special tasting menu with champagne. "I don't
think people want something too crazy," said
Randy Garutti, Tabla's general manager.
Blue
Smoke will do it up the most: The Bill
Charlap Trio is the featured entertainment
downstairs at the Jazz
Standard, and the flat fee will include a
barbecue dinner and Champagne at
midnight.
All of Steve Hanson's
B.R.
Guest restaurants will offer special prix
fixe menus, and the more party-oriented
spaces—Ruby
Foo's, Ruby
Foo's Times Square, Blue
Water Grill, Blue
Fin, Dos
Caminos, Atlantic
Grill and Park
Avalon—will have DJs or live bands for
entertainment.
On the bar front, hotel bar
company Midnight Oil is teaming up with the
Event Marketing Resource Group to host
parties at Whiskey,
Cherry
and Underbar,
and a private event is booked at Whiskey
Park. The remaining bars, Wetbar
and Whiskey
Blue, will be open for regular business.
"We did really well last year just keeping the
bars open for business as usual, so we're doing
that again this year," says Andrew Winter,
Midnight Oil's director of promotions and special
events.
Late Bookings
Prevail
As they did with corporate
holiday party booking, the slow economy and the
tightened holiday season (with Thanksgiving
falling so late in November) have combined to
leave venues waiting for last-minute bookings.
"The window is unbelievably narrow," says Scott
Isebrand, the director of communications and
marketing at Metropolitan
Pavilion. "This incredibly short
turnaround time has been a year-long trend."
(Isebrand cites one event for Merrill Lynch
that was booked less than two weeks prior to the
day of the party.) The venue currently has booked
one event for New Year's in its North Pavilion,
but is still looking to book the rest of the space
for other events.
Tracy Protera at
the Puck
Building (which will host an event for the
New
York Stock Exchange and Harlem
Hospital's annual New Year's benefit this
year) agrees that reservations have come with
short notice: "People usually book during the
summer for a New Year's party, but this year the
bookings were very recent."
—Suzanne
Ito
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