USA: Last-minute preparations for new year's eve bash in New York's Times Square

Record ID: 764596

  • Title: USA: Last-minute preparations for new year's eve bash in New York's Times Square
  • Date: 1st January 2010
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (DECEMBER 31, 2009) (REUTERS) WIDE SHOT OF TIMES SQUARE AT DUSK VARIOUS OF CROWDS AND POLICE PRESENCE TRAVELING SHOT OF SCREAMING CROWDS (SOUNDBITE) (English) KIM AUSTIN, VISITING FROM NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, SAYING: "It does, it brings everyone together, we wanted the party atmosphere, we are here, we've made lots of friends, we have s
  • Embargoed: 16th January 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVAE8V5BSMYKYWYIEIWV8ZFT1WST
  • Story Text: As the last glimmers of daylight in 2009 left the City of New York Thursday (December 31), thousands of visitors began to pack Times Square for the giant new year's eve bash, while an amped-up police force fanned throughout the area to keep crowds in check.
    People from around the world waited in New York's Times Square to welcome to 2010, some since as early as 7:30 in the morning. The last day of 2009 started with snow and very tight security but tourist Kim Austin wasn't deterred.
    "It brings everyone together, we wanted the party atmosphere, we are here, we've made lots of friends, we have seven hours and fifteen minutes to go, and we're going to stick it out," says Austin, who traveled to New York with a group of friends to watch the ball drop.
    The cold weather was no sweat to the thousands of of revelers who started fill up the square, like Willy Hooper, who drove in from Ohio for the event.
    "It doesn't matter, it's not cold, it's like 60 degrees out here, you don't feel it," says Hooper.
    "This is a great place to be," he adds.
    The Times Square new year's eve party bills itself as the "largest party in the world," which makes being in the center of it all that much more important to Bakai Madybaev, who came all the way from Kyrgyzstan.
    "Times Square, the new year's eve, is like the center of the whole world, that's why we came here, just because of this feeling," says Madybaev.
    Young adult Taylor Reilly isn't concerned about any security threats to the area.
    "Everybody's all together, and nobody gives a crap about the problems, they're just ready to have a good time and enjoy the new year," says Reilly.
    But of all the people visiting Times Square, Zainab Conteh from Surinam says, or screams, it best: "I am waiting for the big ball to drop."
    The new year's eve party in Times Square is expected to bring over one million people to midtown Manhattan, and the event's telecast will be seen by over a billion people around the world.
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