I lived in NYC and never once went to see the ball drop in Time’s Square - the idea of standing in the cold for hours to see that? No thanks.
Lived in Berlin and although hundreds of thousands go to Brandenburg Gate, once again the idea of standing out in the cold with masses of people never interested me.
My best NYE party was solely by accident!
My friend and I took a train from NYC to Chicago for Christmas (our families lived near Chicago) and we were both too stupid to reserve a return seat to NYC. When we called, every train was booked solid - except for the train on NYE. Great. So we took that train - we had sleeper compartments and figured, what the hell - we’ll get a good night’s sleep at least.
Back in those days, they had a great “bar car” on the train with a piano! By about 11:00 PM, the car was filled - and everyone was laughing as they too were “idiots” who had not booked a return seat until the last minute. Some very talented Gay dude was at the piano, doing one show tune after another. As the train was filled with mostly New Yorkers, most everyone knew the songs and was singing at the top of their lungs - and yes, everyone was pretty much blitzed. Every seat was filled and we were sitting on the floor and all over the place. We celebrated midnight somewhere in Ohio if I remember correctly. A wild and fun evening! Plus, we only had to stumble back to our sleeper compartments and pass out and when we woke up, we were in Manhattan. Perfect!
So - ever been to a really great NYE party? In a club? At home? Big crowds somewhere? Some place odd and fun?
I lived in NYC for 25 years, and did the Times Square thing exactly once. That was enough. But the crowd wasn’t nearly as dense as Bastille Day Night at the Eiffel Tower. That crowd was so dense that you could lift your legs, and be propped up by the bodies around you. At the end, it was total gridlock for over 2 hours.
It was long ago, in another (warmer) country. I wore a mini skirt. My date looked like a matinee idol. There was dancing in the street. There was beer. There was so much beer that when my date and I tried to return after stepping away for a brief time we couldn’t find the street. Or rather we found the street but there were no people. We concluded the party was over and returned to the respective houses where we were staying. I was puzzled by the lack of people in my house. I concluded I should lay on the floor, fully dressed, and go to sleep. I was found by someone who had come by to check on the children, because actually the house was not empty. The street was not empty either. I returned to the party with the person who found me, and there was more beer, and more dancing. The next day my date was mildly irritated I had gone back without him, and we never did figure out where all the people had gone for that brief time.
A bunch of us spent one in Prague when Czechoslavakia was splitting in to two seperate countries, pretty bloody good by any standards, though people firing fireworks in Wenceslas square made it resemble a war zone.
Chicago, NYE 2000. I was in the Flatiron Building, which had (and still has) a bunch of apartments and artist studios in it. Some level of unrest was expected, so there were cops in the street in riot gear (shields, helmets, etc.). There was music and drinking of course, and parties held in various studios. At the moment of midnight we paused, noting that the electricity was on we cheered with relief that ComEd had fixed any possible Y2K computer glitch issues - oh yeah, and for the new year too - then continued celebrating. I soon ended up on a balcony with a plastic cup full of champagne in my hand. Someone had the Beatles’ song “Revolution” absolutely cranked up, and a bunch of us partiers serenaded the police in the street below.
This may be one of those questions that’s in the same category with “If you remember the Sixties you weren’t really there.” It would seem that a really blowout party would leave you with no memories of it…