PHILADELPHIA, THE UNRIVALED DESTINATION FOR NEW YEAR’S DAY
Fireworks At Midnight, The Mummers Parade And Nighttime Entertainment
Continue The New Year’s Celebration Into 2005

PHILADELPHIA, December 23, 2004 – Don’t go home at midnight! That’s when the party is just getting started in Philadelphia, where locals insist that there’s no better place to celebrate the New Year. With many Center City Philadelphia hotels reporting a near sell-out again this year, it seems that the word is getting out to travelers as well. For those who have procrastinated, there is still time to make New Year’s plans.

New Year’s Day in Philadelphia really kicks into high gear at 12 midnight when pyrotechnics from China, Italy, Japan and Spain produce the country’s largest fireworks display on the waterfront. The Benjamin Franklin Bridge and the Battleship New Jersey serve as backdrops to the fireworks, choreographed to music by Ray Charles, The Mamas and The Papas, Creed and other popular artists. This year, 100,000 people are expected to gather on both sides of the Delaware River for a production themed “Dreams.”

There’s not much time to sleep between the fireworks and the 104^th annual New Year’s Day Mummers Parade, but Philadelphia hotels still have limited availability for their New Year’s Eve hotel deals. Visitors can log onto www.gophila.com/accommodations for a complete listing and to book online.

Thousands of revelers gather early to find a prime spot on Broad Street to watch the Mummers Parade, a century-old spectacle in which 10,000 “strutters” proudly don feathers, glitter and sequins as they compete for cash prizes during their annual march from South Philadelphia to City Hall. The Philadelphia Mummers Parade, the nation’s oldest folk parade, is an entertainment powerhouse with up to 10 hours of live music and themed costumes. Festivities begin at 9 a.m. 

For the first time, parade watchers can get a bird’s-eye view of the action from the terrace of The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where live entertainment and refreshments will be served up Philly-style. Revelers can also escape wintertime temperatures at Lord & Taylor, home to the famous Holiday Light Show, running every hour on the hour from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

New Year’s Day nightlife continues the festivities. Bars in Center City and Old City are filled with the 20-something set, and nearly 2,000 gay revelers are expected at the Philadelphia Cruise Terminal at Pier 1 for the first Short Circuit Weekend Main Event. Perhaps the best party in town is at 2^nd Street and Washington Avenue outside of the Mummers Museum, where parade participants gather to celebrate victory or wallow in defeat during festivities that last well into the early morning hours. Still in parade mode, members of the Fancy Brigade division perform scaled-down versions of their routine along 2^nd Street, where they’re judged again—this time by local business owners—for a cash prize of $2,500. 

To plan a New Year’s Day itinerary and book a hotel room, visitors can log onto www.gophila.com.

2004

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