Street party plans
Haymarket
This will be a family-orientated event. There will be an early-evening lighting of the millennium beacon, followed by a procession led by Transe-Express, with fireworks and street entertainment.
The Quayside
There will be bands and street entertainment. At 11pm a massive bird-and-child-sculpture will float up round the bend of the river. The sculpture will include pyrotechnic and lighting displays. A Manchester company, Walk the Plank, will put on a firework and lighting display on the river.
The Bigg market
A video wall will run a live link to the other two areas of activity and to television coverage around the world.
Revellers in Newcastle will witness an eclectic mix of entertainment during New Year's Eve, from a string quartet suspended from a 60-tonne crane, to a giant floating bird that will sweep up the Tyne, spurting fireworks and lights.
The five bridges over the Tyne are to be the backdrop for one of three street events in the city, with the quayside partitioned off for entertainment and shows. But restaurants are unlikely to benefit from a captive audience, as the sheer volume of people milling about has persuaded most owners to close for the evening.
At a trial run last year, more than 30,000 people flocked to the river. This year the organiser, Arc Trust, a not-for-profit organisation commissioned by Newcastle City Council to run the event, is expecting even more.
"We are taking a leaf out of Edinburgh's book and making the quayside event restricted access. It will be free but ticket only," says Frank Wilson, directorof Arc.
The Waterline and Moby Dick, a pub and restaurant business on the quayside, is to close the restaurant, using the space for the pub.
"It will be too busy for families to come out to eat," says Caroline Armstrong, manager of the business. "We haven't had many enquiries, so we are just going to run the pub, with a bar selling cans of drink outside."
One of Newcastle's premier restaurants, 21 Queen Street, situated in the quayside area, is also closing.
"The whole area is to be closed off. It is just too difficult for some of our customers to get here and, more importantly, to get home afterwards," explains Nick Shottel, restaurant manager. "The celebrations are going to be wonderful for the city, but we are caught in the middle."
It is not just the anticipated crowds that have forced closure - cost is also a recurrent problem. Rod Davies, owner of Quay 35, simply doesn't believe it would be worth opening.
"We have a 40-cover restaurant and it would have to be filled to capacity, with no entertainment. I would also have to charge £70 or £80 a head - people would expect to see that on the plate," he says. "We'll be busy enough in December, so we are going to close and let the staff off. "
The second area of activity will be the centre of town, where a family event is being organised. A group from France, called Transe-Express, will lead a series of processions from different points of the city, to converge at Grey's monument on Grey Street and then head off up to Haymarket, home to the Civic Centre. Each column will be led by huge back-pack puppets of famous Geordies, accompanied by drummers, who are being recruited from the local community. Leading the procession will be a huge oil tanker, turned into a drum. A string quartet will play from a platform suspended from a 60-tonne crane, while trapeze artists will perform above spectators' heads.
The third of the three centres to host events is the Bigg Market, an area crammed with pubs and clubs.
"It is on a hill and too steep a slope for stages, so we will be putting up a video wall for people to watch as they mill about, waiting to get into the clubs and pubs," says Wilson. "It will be so cold they will need something to keep their feet stamping." n
