Low Party Turnout Blamed on Y2K Fear

Y2K fears cost the organizer of a New Year’s Eve party at the fairgrounds $50,000 in lost ticket sales, she said Wednesday.

Ventura City Councilwoman Donna DePaola, the party’s sponsor, spent $75,000 of her own money to host the Millennium Masquerade, to benefit Soroptimist International of Ventura. However, only 700 people bought tickets, which originally cost up to $125. To just break even, DePaola said, she needed to sell 2,000 tickets.

“I still have lots of bills to pay, I’m just going to have to work out payments,” she said.

When party planning began last March, DePaola said she expected about 2,000 people to attend.

“There were no other parties around, we were getting a lot of calls from Los Angeles and Santa Barbara saying, ‘What are you guys going to do in Ventura?’ ”

With ticket sales still lagging by Dec. 1, DePaola estimated she had lost $25,000. Two weeks before the party, ticket prices were dropped to $49 for adults and $25 for children.

DePaola received between 50 and 60 calls a day last month from people expecting to pay at the door, though only about 10 people paid at the last minute.

“Then a lot of people were asking where was the best place to watch the fireworks go off,” she said.

DePaola paid $35,000 to rent space at the fairgrounds; $25,000 on fireworks; and $10,000 on publicity. She said she was glad that the people who attended had fun and that people around the city enjoyed the fireworks.