Getting Set to Celebrate

From San Pedro to the San Fernando Valley, organizers scrambled Tuesday to prepare for millennium parties at five sites scattered around the city and sought to alleviate any fears about security.

Throughout the city, armies of workers swung into action in preparation for the gospel singers, marching bands, laser light shows and live bands. Workers laid cable, arranged lights, erected fences and stages, built fireworks towers and decorated airport hangars.

At Universal Studios Hollywood, a 23-foot-tall bottle of champagne was airlifted to the theme park for its New Year’s party. Universal Studios had hired a helicopter crew to lift the 9,000-pound bottle off a flatbed truck and fly it into the park. The green fiberglass bottle was partially filled with champagne.

At Van Nuys Airport, a field of white tents sprang up from the tarmac. In front of a cavernous hangar, a 40-foot stage was erected where 2,000 line dancers will perform a dance called the electric slide at 3:30 p.m. Friday.

Downtown, at Grand Avenue and 2nd Street, the landscape looked like a construction site as a giant TV monitor and colorful lights were set into place. Marc Cerrone, a producer for that celebration, said he and a crew of about 250 began working Sunday and were about 30% complete.

“L.A. deserves the best-looking show,” Cerrone said.

The other party locations are Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Plaza, the plaza between Olvera Street and Union Station and the World Cruise Terminal at Los Angeles Harbor in San Pedro. Events are scheduled between noon Friday at 1 a.m. Saturday.

“Never have we captured the whole imagination of the whole city all at once like this,” said Al Nodal, general manager of the Cultural Affairs Department and executive producer of Celebrate L.A. 2000.

About half of the estimated 456,000 tickets available for the free events had been claimed by Tuesday. Tickets are available at Ralph’s, Food 4 Less and local libraries--but only for the nearest regional event, organizers said. Those who want to attend a party in another area of the city have to get them in that area, and some will be available at the door, organizers said.

Two years in the making, the New Year’s Eve parties will cost about $1.1 million in city funds and $500,000 in police and other municipal services funds. An additional $4 million will come from private donors.

Preparations continued even as Seattle canceled its New Year’s Eve bash Tuesday because of fears of terrorism and the lingering malaise from the violence during the recent World Trade Organization meeting.

Organizers in Los Angeles emphasized that they have been working closely with law enforcement agencies over the last year and that all five sites will be secure, as well as alcohol-free. They said revelers should be prepared to be patted down and searched. Metal detectors will be set up.

“We are determined to have safe events. We are not going to let terrorism scare us or close us down,” Nodal said. “We flinch and they’ve won.”

Los Angeles’ top law enforcement officials said Tuesday they do not believe the region will be the target of terrorists during the New Year’s weekend.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca and Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks said at a joint news conference that they have no information indicating any groups are planning to target Los Angeles during the millennial weekend or the Rose Parade in Pasadena.

Nevertheless, Baca, Parks and nearly a dozen other Southern California law enforcement officials at the briefing said they would be ready for any situation. There will be 300 extra Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies on patrol, a record number of LAPD officers on the streets and the National Guard on standby, they said.

“We will have more LAPD officers on the streets of Los Angeles than at any time in our history,” Parks said, declining to provide a number.

The National Guard will be on regular maneuvers through the weekend, available to back up any local agencies. The California Highway Patrol will have 97% of its 1,600 officers in the area available.

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Times staff writers Bobby Cuza and Edgar Sandoval contributed to this story.