Lynn Wexler - David Magazine December 2013 Issue

A Toast to Prodigality & Sentiment

Auld Lang Syne

B riton Petula Clark’s No. 1 hit in early 1965 may have been writ-ten about New York City, but it easily could apply to the dazzle of the Las Vegas Strip and Fremont Street, especially on New

Year’s Eve 2013. � e mere thought of the most anticipated party night of the year in-

spires the urge to revelry, if not downright prodigality. No city anywhere does nightlife quite like Las Vegas, though others certainly try. New Year’s Eve simply ups the ante on America’s year-round party in Sin City.

For a dear price, one can enjoy the � nest drinks, cuisine, danc-ing and entertainment in the world, along with 300,000 (according to the Nevada Tourism Commission) like-minded merrymakers, and more celebrities than TMZ could embarrass in a year. Whether gambling away their savings, smooching against the backdrop of the Stratosphere’s stunning views or rollicking into the wee hours in a haze of champagne, Vegas visitors for New Year’s do their best to match the city’s rip-roaring reputation for fun.

Trip the light fantastic on the famed Strip or along Fremont Street, but be sure to heed the Las Vegas Tourism Bureau’s admoni-tion: Leave your car keys in your hotel room. Both the Strip and Fremont Street are o� -limits to tra� c, as the thoroughfares are transformed into a pulsating street party with live bands, pyrotech-nic displays and laser extravaganzas.

At midnight, more than 80,000 � reworks will be launched col-lectively over the course of eight minutes from the rooftops of Aria, Caesars Palace, MGM Grand, Planet Hollywood, Stratosphere, TI and the Venetian. And the Fremont Street Experience will feature special e� ects canopy � reworks.

Bars and nightclubs will turn up the volume — along with the ticket prices — for exciting celebrations and famous music acts. For $250 and up, you can catch Britney Spears at Planet Hollywood; DJ Calvin Harris at Hakkasan in the MGM Grand; Miguel at Tao at � e Venetian; DJ Vice at Lavo at the Palazzo; Kristin Chenoweth at the

By Lynn Wexler

Linger on the sidewalks where the neon signs are pretty. How can you lose? � e lights are much brighter there. You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares, so go Downtown …

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Smith Center; Bruno Mars at The Cosmopolitan; Celine Dion at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace; and Kaskade at XS at Encore.

Lavish fetes are available for the VIP, all-in set, in Las Vegas and beyond – way beyond. Last year, for a beginning price of $10,000, tables were available at the opening of the Bellagio’s Hyde Lounge, with celeb guests ranging from Sofia Vergara to Nick Jonas.

To celebrate the most glamorous night of the year at the Mirage’s 1 OAK Nightclub this year will set you back $19,215. A dozen guests can dine, dance and ring in the New Year, though, with two-time, Grammy-nominated hip-hop sensation J. Cole. If that’s a bit rich, try the $12,810 entry fee at Bellagio’s The Bank, with a midnight performance by hip-hop and Hollywood superstar Common.

The ultimate VIP package is offered at Andrea’s restaurant at the Wynn, followed by an evening with electronic dance music superstar

DJ Diplo at Surrender the Nightclub. Andrea’s offers what the manage-ment calls vibe dining, which it says is achieved through the seamless integration of the nightclub atmosphere with the culinary experience.

For $150,000, a total of 10 guests will begin the evening with a din-ner tasting menu designed by Andrea’s executive chef Joseph Elevado. The party continues with premium seating inside the posh nightclub, a $100,000 engraved bottle of Dom Perignon Rose Gold, three mag-nums of Grey Goose and one magnum of Don Julio. The buyer gets to count down the New Year in the DJ booth with Diplo, who will spin hits and provide the evening’s high-energy entertainment.

If you’d prefer to ring in 2014 with an old acquaintance, while tak-ing a cup o’ kindness yet for auld lang syne (the good old times), and in more exotic, less frenzied environs, there are plenty of opulent opportunities.

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Consider spending New Year’s Eve in Sicily at the privately owned 18th century Baroque style Palazzo Gangi, where Luchino Visconti filmed the iconic ballroom scenes in the 1963 classic Il Gattopardo. Dine on a sumptuous $13,000 multicourse chef’s tasting menu for up to 20 guests, and wash it down with carefully selected fine wines. Music and dancing follow in the very same ballroom, culminating in a fireworks display viewed from the palazzo’s terrace. For an ad-ditional $24,000, guests may retire at evening’s end for a weeklong stay at the nearby Villa Tasca. In 1881, Richard Wagner completed the opera Parsifal there. The luxury villa company Think Sicily will handle the arrangements.

For the ultra-cool experience, and upwards of $13,699 a person, Holiday Antarctica’s New Year’s cruise aboard the 132-passenger Silver Explorer will depart Ushuaia, Argentina. You’ll dine, black tie-style, on a five-course gourmet dinner, while surrounded by levia-than icebergs and calving glaciers. Just before midnight, the lights of Antarctica will come into view from the ship’s deck as the count-down to 2014 begins. Music and dancing take you into the morning hours on this 12-day luxurious New Year’s adventure.

Have a ball, literally, in classic Viennese style. Le Grand Bal, held in the majestic Hofburg Palace, is a highlight on the international New Year’s circuit. For $5,650 a person, Exeter International will arrange access to this high-brow event in Austria that includes a ride to the ball in a horse drawn fiacre carriage for which the city is famous, a red carpet reception, a gourmet dinner and an elaborate fireworks display.

Pyrotechnics are well and good on New Year’s Eve. But wit-nessing nature’s own extravaganza trumps them all. Some of the world’s best views of the aurora borealis (Northern Lights) are a

quick helicopter ride from the Reykjavik social scene. Uber-hip outfitter Black Tomato will arrange transportation to this spec-tacular midnight light show. Afterward, the company suggests continuing the revelry back in Iceland’s capital at the Hotel Ranga, and spending the next few days exploring the nation’s glaciers, volcanoes and hot springs.

For many people, the New Year’s celebrations ultimately represent an attempt to distinguish the past from the future, the old from the new, the hope of building a better tomorrow.

“These are very much Jewish values,” says Rabbi Yocheved Mintz of Congregation P’nai Tikvah in Las Vegas. “Jewish tradition cel-ebrates the ability to begin again and to not be imprisoned by the past. We need to feel hope for new possibilities, and that our future is not governed entirely by our history.”

In 1788, Scottish writer and poet Robert Burns, adding to a ballad written by James Watson in 1711, gave us Auld Lang Syne, the now-sentimental song sung round the globe, as the old year flickers away and the new one begins, no matter the culture, nor the simplicity or extravagance of the moment.

This Scottish gift to the world recalls the love and kindness of days gone by… We two have run about the slopes, and picked the daisies fine; But we’ve wandered many a weary foot, since the days of auld lang syne … while giving us a sense of fellowship to carry into the future … And there’s a hand my trusty friend. And give me a hand o’ thine. And we’ll take a right good-will draught, for auld lang syne.

For a moment in time, just once each year at the stroke of mid-night, from Sin City to Singapore, Auld Lang Syne reminds that as we linger on the sidewalks where the neon signs are pretty, we’re more alike than we’re different, and we’re all in this together.

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