Plans for the party of the century

Press, 4 February 1987, Page 11

Plans for the party of the century

NZPA-Reuter Washington An optimistic President Ronald Reagan has accepted an invitation. His deputy, George Bush, invited himself. The Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping has not replied, and Britain’s youngest royal, Prince Henry, just is not planning that far ahead. They are all on the guest list for the ultimate New Year’s Eve party — a global network of celebrations planned for December 31, 1999, to usher in the third millennium A.D. at sites ranging from Egypt’s Pyramids to England’s Stonehenge and the Great Wall of China. The “World Millennium Gala Ball” is the brainchild of the Millennium Society, an association of 4000 “consummate optimists” from 32 countries who see the historic calendar shift as a chance to promote world harmony while having fun. “It is about hope,” said their chairman, Ed McNally, explaining. why he and some classmates at Yale University decided to create the society in 1979. “We believe there will be a better future and we are committed to work very hard to ensure there will be one,” said Mr McNally. “That’s why we’re planning events so far in advance.” He said that the Egyptian Government has agreed to let 3000 revellers celebrate at the Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza. The British liner Q.E.2. has been contracted to take them there. It will leave New York on December 21, 1999, and make a port call at Marseilles to pick up several thousand bottles of champagne to be given by the French Champagne Growers’ Association.

Although the pyramids party is the only celebration actually in-preparation, it is just the start of what the Millennium Society has in mind for its members and a target list of elite guests. It hopes to gain permission to hold other events at India’s Taj Mahal, the Great Wall, Stonehenge, New York’s Statue of Liberty and Mt Eden, New Zealand. “There’ll be dozens of simultaneous events all around the world as the year 2000 breaks across each time zone,” said Mr McNally, a New York lawyer. What will the ultimate parties be like? “A multi-sensory experience,” said the society’s organiser, Laurie Flynn. “Short of giving away the plot, I will say it’s a choreography of lasers, video imaging, and special effects.” In plain language, that means music, fireworks, light shows, dancing, food and, of course, champagne. The cost? Impossible to estimate so far in advance, the society says. A detailed estimate is expected in 1997 from the firm of Thomas Cooke, which is handling travel plans. V.I.P. guests will have their costs paid by the society, while regular members will be expected to buy tickets. Although the original idea conceived in 1979 was to hold a reunion of Mr McNally’s class in 20 years, that became a bigger enterprise when they realised it would mark the dawn of the third millennium. “The idea caught their imagination, they developed it and things got rolling and the society was incorporated as a charity in 1983,” said Scott Widmeyer, another spokesman.

The group created a scholarship programme for students from throughout the world and, to help fund it, began annual "Countdown to the Millennium" New Year’s Eve balls in various countries. “We wanted to broaden the scope and involve hundreds and perhaps thousands of people around a common cause of international understanding,” said Mr Widmeyer. The society’s scholars are sent to the United World Colleges, a network of universities whose titular head is the Prince of Wales. More notice has been stirred by an annual list of “10 most inspiring people,” with those honoured invited to the 1999 galas. Mr McNally said that Mr Reagan, named to the 1985 list, had already accepted the invitation to party at the pyramids — although he would be nearing his 89th birthday. “As we look to the time ahead, we are confident that we have begun to lay a foundation for a better and freer world and a world at peace,” he quoted Mr Reagan as saying in his acceptance letter. Mr Bush, who has not made the mostinspiring list, did a video tape for the 1985 Washington ball in which he said he looked forward to attending the millennium celebration. “He sort of invited himself,” Mr McNally said. Others listed by the society as having accepted invitations are the comedians, Bob Hope and George Burns, aged 90, who asked if he could bring a date; Robert Gale, the doctor who helped treat

victims of the 1986 nuclear disaster In the Soviet Union; and the United States baseball commissioner, Peter Ueberroth, who organised the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Mr McNally said Buckingham Palace had offered a polite thanks for an invitation extended to Prince Henry, two-year-old son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, but “regretfully informed us he was only accepting engagements two years in advance”. The society is still awaiting firm replies from China’s leader, Deng Xiaoping; the President of the Philippines, Mrs Corazon Aquino; South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu; a Nobel Peace prizewinner, Elie Wiesel, and West German tennis star, Boris Becker, among others. “They symbolise a sense of hope and promise for the future," said Mr Widmeyer. “And that’s basically what the Millennium Society is all about. "We are all consummate optimists.” Apart from the annual most-inspiring selections from each year between 1984 and 1999, other guests will be millennium scholars and members and representatives of the news media. The plan to celebrate the dawn of the third millennium as the year 2000 opens has created a stir among those who insist it really begins in 2001. But the society is sticking to its guns. While acknowledging that 2001 is correct in the strictest sense — mathematically, 2000 is the last year of the second millennium — Mr Widmeyer said that most people viewed the year 2000 as the symbolic milestone.