Las Vegas, NV (AP) - Fireworks that were called off last year due to the coronavirus pandemic are returning to the Las Vegas Strip this New Year’s Eve with a theme pointed toward 2022 — Deuces Wild — and the addition of an eighth hotel-top launching spot, tourism and elected officials announced Thursday.
“Aside from last year, ‘America’s Party’ has been the culminating event of the entire year for more than 20 years,” said Pat Christenson, president of Las Vegas Events, a nonprofit agency created to produce and support big events.
Thousands of revelers still congregated on Las Vegas Boulevard to ring in 2021 despite the canceled fireworks. There was no mention during Thursday’s news conference previewing this year’s event of the possible effect of the emergence and spread in recent weeks of the omicron variant of COVID-19.
Fireworks were first held on the Strip on the last night of 2000. The display has helped make New Year’s Eve one of Las Vegas’ biggest events, drawing more than 300,000 revelers, according to tourism officials, and filling the tourism-dependent city’s more than 250,000 hotel rooms.
“Being able to host this event again is so special because it allows us to close out the year in a memorable way,” Christenson said in a statement accompanying Thursday’s announcement.
Fireworks by Grucci designs and choreographs the eight-minute pyrotechnic display from atop resort properties that last year included MGM Grand, Aria, Planet Hollywood, Caesars Palace, Treasure Island, Venetian and The STRAT tower
This year the show will add Resorts World Las Vegas, which opened last June.