CELEBRATION WILL LIGHT UP L.A.'S SKIES L.A. PARTIES WILL ADD UP TO ONE BIG BASH.

Byline: Steve Carney Staff Writer

Look, up in the sky - it's a plane, it's a blimp, it's L.A.'s millennium celebration.

Saying such a diverse city has one common element - the sky above it - organizers of the city's official New Year's Eve party want to use that venue to link Los Angeles today.

So light shows, fireworks and an aerial parade - featuring airplanes, blimps, hot-air balloons, skywriters and skydivers - will soar over the City of Angels. That's in addition to the five regional, earthbound parties throughout the city, including the San Fernando Valley Spectacular at Van Nuys Airport. Those family oriented festivals will run 13 hours and climax with a one-time-only lighting of the Hollywood sign at midnight.

``Early on I wanted to come up with something that ties the whole city together,'' said Adolfo Nodal, the city's cultural affairs director. So organizers settled on the air promenade as one element of that.

Mayor Richard Riordan said all the L.A. events will ``mark the beginning of a new century in the greatest city in the world.''

``The excitement is building,'' he said Thursday in a statement. ``Celebrate L.A. 2000 is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Angelenos to showcase Los Angeles as the capital city of the 21st century, while highlighting our culturally diverse neighborhoods, traditions and personalities.''

Acting as grand marshal at the Van Nuys Airport will be ``Airwolf'' star Jan Michael Vincent. The former television personality has battled substance abuse the past 15 years, has fought allegations of domestic violence and assault, and broke his neck in a drunken-driving crash in Orange County in 1996. The following year Vincent, 54, sued the paramedics who treated him, saying they injured his throat.

Festival organizers say his recovery and rehabilitation are in sync with the theme of the alcohol-free, family oriented New Year's Eve celebration. The other four city festivals are ``The Alameda'' at the Civic Center, ``One Wonderful Night'' in the Baldwin Hills/Crenshaw Plaza area, ``The Global Village-Tomorrow is Here'' on Grand Avenue at California Plaza and ``Gateway to the Future'' at San Pedro Harbor. Children 12 and under must be accompanied by parents, while in San Pedro parents must accompany children 16 and younger.

Nodal said the Grand Avenue and Alameda sites were so close, they decided to link them and create a large venue where people could travel back and forth. They're closing First Street between Grand and Main to create a large pedestrian mall, and Nodal said they can accommodate about 45,000 people.

And the best part of all - the city celebration is free.

``We're trying to do something really beautiful for the people of L.A.,'' Nodal said.

Unlike events around the world with price tags reaching into the thousands, tickets for the city celebrations are available for no charge. But tickets are required, Nodal said - separate ones for each of the venues, and they must be obtained beforehand at any city library branch, or at Ralph's or Food 4 Less stores.

Another unifying aspect of Celebrate L.A. 2000 will be ``Opus 21: A Festival of Sacred Sounds,'' which will kick off the citywide festivities at noon. Throughout the city, at least 1,500 churches, temples, synagogues and other houses of worship will combine their bells, chimes, gongs, horns and singing groups in one massive chorus, with the goal of having every area of Los Angeles bathed in sacred sounds. The chorus will be repeated at 4 p.m. and 9 p.m., to commemorate the advent of the new year in Greenwich, England, and on America's East Coast, then once more just before midnight.

Each of the five regional parties will be linked by huge television screens, so revelers at each location can see what their counterparts are enjoying at the others. Twenty-two cameras spread throughout the city will broadcast events during the day, including musical performances by Los Lobos from The Alameda and The Eagles from the Staples Center. And viewers will all get to see the Hollywood sign festivities, when the L.A. icon is lighted for only 15 minutes. ``Once we light it, I think it will be very vivid,'' Nodal said. ``We're developing an eternal image of it. People will always remember that.''

Little previews of the sign lighting will begin flashing periodically at 8 p.m., said event spokesman Patrick Jager.

At 10 seconds to midnight Mayor Richard Riordan and ``Tonight Show'' host Jay Leno will flip a switch and begin illuminating the sign, with one letter blinking on each second.

``After a couple of minutes a special guest star will perform on the Hollywood sign,'' Jager said. ``It will be a musician. That's all I can tell you.''

In addition to the music, food, games and other entertainment, the five festivals will feature ``2000 On Parade.'' At each of the venues, 2,000 participants - including civilians from the crowd - can join in the show, whether it's line dancing at Van Nuys Airport, 2,000 marching band musicians at Grand Avenue, 2,000 gospel singers at the Crenshaw district, 2,000 drummers at San Pedro and 2,000 folk dancers at the Alameda.

``We're just inviting all the people who are into line dancing or into folklorico to just come on out to the site and be a part of history,'' Nodal said.

The city has hired private security to patrol the five festivals, to augment the Los Angeles police officers who will be stationed there. And officers will be fanned out throughout the city, as well.

``We'll have more officers deployed for this holiday season than we've ever had in the history of the department,'' said LAPD Officer Charlotte Broughton. ``We just want to be prepared for anything that may arise.''

Estimates have said more than 1,000 officers will be working, but Broughton could not confirm that.

``We're not giving specific numbers for tactical reasons,'' she said, but she added that the number will be greater than those on the street during the 1984 Olympics or Pope John Paul II's visit in 1987.

With room for up to 400,000 revelers at the city's festivals, Nodal said there's plenty of entertainment to go around in Los Angeles. And he said he hopes the festivals will begin a tradition that will recur for future New Year's Eves.

``There's a lot of other wonderful stuff going on in the city, too,'' Nodal said. ``I'm not trying to compete. The millennium belongs to everybody. This is happening everywhere.

``It's just a good excuse for the city to get people together and feel good about being here.''

NEW YEAR'S EVENTS

``The San Fernando Valley Spectacular,'' one of five city-sponsored New Year's Eve festivals, begins at noon today at the Van Nuys Airport. Ticket are free and must be obtained in advance at any city library branch, or Ralph's or Food 4 Less stores. Off-site parking and all Metro Bus lines from 11 a.m. today-5 a.m. Saturday, and on Metro Rail from 11 a.m.-2 a.m. For more information call the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department at (213) 485-ARTS.

--Noon: Gates open.

--Noon, 4 p.m., 9 p.m. and midnight: Festival of Sacred Sounds. Bells, gongs, cymbals will ring at houses of worship around the city.

--All day: Food, souvenirs for sale; displays including cars and boats for adults and Lego Land for kids; carnival rides (small fee).

--12-6 p.m.: Youth activities, including storytelling, face painting, art projects.

--1 p.m.: Musical acts begin performing on main stage, starting with Magica Juventud.

--1 p.m.: Check-in begins for line dancers. Rehearse between 1:30 and 3 p.m. (includes instruction).

--2 p.m.: ``Air parade'' of planes, blimps, skywriters and skydivers.

--2-3 p.m.: Music group The Original Tierra.

--3-4 p.m.: Line dancers perform on main stage, led by grand marshal Jan-Michael Vincent.

--4-5 p.m.: Spoken-word group Watts Prophets.

--5 p.m.: Video interlink between the five ``Celebrate L.A. 2000'' sites begins.

--5-6 p.m.: Yari Moore.

--6-7:30 p.m.: Music group Indigo Swing.

--7:30-8:40 p.m.: Music group Canned Heat.

--8:40-9 p.m.: Children's millennium, with a war-up fireworks and laser show, followed by a children's performance and celebration, for parents who want to get their kids in bed before midnight. Adult entertainment follows.

--9 p.m.: Video link to New York City, where the new year is arriving.

--9-10 p.m.: Flamenco and Middle Eastern music band Alabina performs.

--10-11:30 p.m.: Singer B.J. Thomas performs.

--11:30 p.m.-midnight: Video interlink to other L.A. celebration sites.

--midnight-1 a.m.: Fireworks and laser light show at airport.

TO OUR READERS

Let's make it perfectly clear: when the clock strikes midnight tonight it is not officially the end of the 20th century nor the start of a new millennium.

But in an age of instant gratification, who could wait?

Popular culture has decided this is it, the millennium year, the start of the 21st century, the historic moment of new beginnings when the past is left behind.

So, hey everybody, let's party, welcome in the year 2000, the 21st century, the third millennium A.D.

Happy New Year!

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 2 boxes, map

Photo: (1 -- page one -- color) The Hollywood sign is lighted up Thursday night during a trial run for tonight's New Year's Eve lighting, part of numerous celebrations planned citywide.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

(2) Pyrotechnic operators Tom Knieling, left, and Rick Bensema set up the New Year's Eve fireworks Thursday at the Van Nuys Airport.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

Box: (1) NEW YEAR'S EVENTS (see text)

(2) TO OUR READERS (see text)

Map: San Fernando Valley Spectacular