GOT PLANS FOR DEC. 31, 1999?

Byline: Jenifer Hanrahan Daily News Staff Writer

The biggest night in 1,000 years is coming.

We are marching inexorably closer and closer to Y2K, and that means loading up on provisions fixing the worldwide computer glitch, being sure we have cash on hand ... and planning the biggest bash this century.

There are only 369 days left until many of the world's inhabitants begin the final countdown to 2000, culminating at the stroke of midnight with popping champagne corks, showers of bubbly, crackling fireworks, sloppy kisses and group hugs.

Do you know where you'll be?

Anyone who's serious about celebrating has already started preparing for the festivities.

Elaborate fetes are in the works around the globe. Egypt will host a five-day music festival near the base of the Sphinx. In Greenwich, England, home of the prime meridian, they're building a giant dome that will house multiple exhibitions looking back on the last 1,000 years. The French have installed a giant clock on the Eiffel Tower that's already begun the countdown. Rome has some 700 construction projects under way, several hundred of them preparing for the Jubilee, the Catholic Church's celebration of the millennium.

Locally: The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will host a party for as many as 100,000 people, replete with fireworks, laser light shows and multi-ethnic entertainers who will conjure up a Super Bowl-style half-time show of Olympic opening-ceremony proportions.

Then there are the private affairs around Southern California that are sure to test the parking capacity in some residential neighborhoods. Jeff Bennett, for one, is planning on doing more than buying a few funny hats and noisemakers. The pet food company owner has budgeted more than $1 million for a New Year's bash in his Corona home.

He'll have dancers in costume and food that was popular during various periods of the 20th century. He'll turn his entryway into a jet airplane so visitors can feel like they are traveling back in time. His 600-plus guests can expect to get a pre-invitation in the mail soon - a clock counting down the days, minutes and seconds to the millennium.

``It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing,'' said Bennett, who's handed over the reigns to Bob Gail & It's the Main Event party planners. ``I'm never going to see another one.''

Champagne and sparkling-wine producers are hoping you, too, will throw the party of your life and stock up on bottles of bubbly. But warnings about a widespread champagne shortage are not completely accurate, said Bernard Gantner, director of millennium and trade relations for the makers of Moet, Chandon and Dom Perignon champagne.

While it's possible that merchants will mark up the prices and some high-end cuvees may sell out by mid-1999, you're unlikely to find all the wine-store shelves empty.

Still, ``We have all indications that even people who normally stay home quietly are going to do something different,'' Gantner said.

Thankfully, even though we're bracing for a new millennium, some things will remain the same. Dick Clark, seemingly impervious to the passing of time, assures us he'll be shivering and grinning from his usual spot in New York's Times Square as he leads the crowd in the countdown to 2000, just like's he's done for the past 27 years.

Will he call it quits in the next millennium? Not as long as he can help it, Clark says. His contract with ABC runs though 2000, and it will likely be renewed.

``Dick Clark will see you through,'' he said.

Most years, when ``Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve'' signs off, Clark and his wife have a couple of beers at a Manhattan bar before boarding a flight the next morning back to Los Angeles. But in 2000, ABC will likely extend the broadcast into the wee hours of the morning.

After that, ``I'll probably just go home and go to bed,'' he said.

If you're short on ideas but not short on cash, here are some major events being planned for New Year's Eve 1999.

Arrive early, stay late: Getting to the party first may be a faux pas in some circles, but among millennium enthusiasts - and cities and countries trying to cash in on tourism dollars the millennium stands to bring - it's the thing to do. Lubec, Maine, boasts on the Internet that it's the easternmost point on the U.S. mainland - and hence the first to claim the New Year.

Where will the clock hands actually strike midnight first? On the specks of land that make up the plucky Republic of Kiribati, more than 1,300 miles southwest of Honolulu. A few years ago, the country officially moved the date line that intersected the islands 30 degrees to the east, hence bringing all of its islands into the same time zone - and the same day.

That ensured it will be the first inhabited place to ring in the new millennium.

The first place the sun will rise when the calendar reads Jan. 1, however, is the uninhabited Balleny Islands in Antarctica, according to the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

And the first inhabited place that will see the sun that day is tiny Pitt Island (population 55), part of the Chathams, 467 miles east of the New Zealand mainland.

There are no hotels, however, on this island of fishermen and shepherds. Visitors will have to stay 13 miles away on the main island of Chatham (population 700), which features exactly one pub in which to revel. Forget booking a last-minute room there. The island's only hotel has a maximum occupancy of 24.

Staying home, but not on the couch: Four years ago, Mark Poncher had a vision - turn Los Angeles into the party place to be on Dec. 31, 1999.

``There has never been anything really wonderful to do in L.A. on New Year's Eve,'' Poncher said. ``We want to create a signature event for the city.''

The Los Angeles Millennium Show, which has a proposed budget of $10 million to $11 million, will feature several hundred drill team performers, both professionals and local children, and big-name celebrities who are yet to be announced, said Poncher, who formed the Turn of the Millennium Corp. to plan the event, slated for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

A street fair with food vendors, entertainment and booths of corporate sponsors will be held in Exposition Park preceding the 1-1/2-hour show, which will be broken into three segments: ``Falling Into the Future,'' featuring ``Jetsons''-type images of the future seen through the eyes of the past; ``Time Explosion,'' a look at dress and transportation of the 20th century; and ``Brotherhood,'' a celebration of multiculturalism that will feature performers from 21 Los Angeles ethnic groups. VIPs and sponsors will be treated to private parties on site.

The finale will be a fireworks and laser show.

Tickets will cost between $40 and $50, Poncher said. They'll go on sale in the spring through Ticketmaster.

The Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department has pledged $100,000 in cash and in-kind services to each of nine regional arts councils for family-oriented street festivals or other community celebrations. A jury of Cultural Affairs staff and community representatives will review proposals for celebrations and decide in January what form they will take, said Eve Rappoport, manager of community relations for the Cultural Affairs Department.

``A lot is up to the producers to see what makes sense for these communities,'' Rappoport said. ``It's a way to bring people together in these regions.''

The Square, the Strip and the Big Bang: In New York and Las Vegas, plans are under way for what are being billed as the largest fireworks displays in history.

The spectacles have a budget of $1.5 million to $2 million each - and that's not including the police and related services the cities are expected to kick in, said Philip Butler, who will produce both shows for Fireworks by Grucci, a company based on New York's Long Island.

In New York, fireworks will be set off from 10 locations, blanketing Manhattan under an umbrella of light at the stroke of midnight. A similar plan is in the works for Vegas' Strip.

``The object will be to light up the Strip and truly make the stars come down to Earth,'' Butler said.

The eight- to 12-minute show, called ``The Manhattan Project'' in both cities, will be set to music, he said.

Some hotels on Las Vegas' Strip are already taking reservations for New Year's Eve, 1999; others will wait until early next year. The Las Vegas Hilton reports it's already sold out.

Expect to see significantly higher prices. For New Year's 1999, hotel-casinos along the Strip are typically requiring guests to book three- or four-night stays for a total of more than $2,000.

It's a big increase over this New Year's Eve's hotel rates, which range from about $289 to $329 on New Year's Eve and less on the days before and after.

At least you'll have less money to lose gambling.

Avoiding holiday traffic: The prestigious tour company Abercrombie & Kent started selling Y2K packages in the summer of 1996, and demand has been growing ever since.

``People want to be somewhere exotic, with a sense of historical significance,'' said Christa Brantsch, director of public relations for the tour company.

When the original 14 escorted group tours sold out, they added 43 more packages. Even though you may want to reserve your spot now, you'll do so without knowing how much it costs.

Prices won't be set until around June of next year, because tour companies don't yet know what airlines, hotels and others will charge them, Brantsch said.

Where can you go? Spend New Year's Eve partying in sight of the Taj Mahal. (Sorry, local officials won't allow a party inside.) You can welcome the new millennium where little has changed since this one began - inside a Bedouin banquet tent in the lost city of Petra, Jordan, or spend it in Kenya sipping cocktails in a ``luxury tented camp.''

You can travel to Vienna, where you'll ring in the New Year at a gala ball in the Imperial Hotel, or take a cruise to Antarctica and celebrate within sight of the most desolate continent.

Another popular destination is Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca capital in Peru, said Carol Snyder, public relations manager of Maupintour.

If you're tired of `Auld Lang Syne': In an undisclosed location in the desert outside of Palm Springs, witches, free-thinkers, shamans and other followers of pagan religions are planning the ``world's largest chanting circle.''

To avoid trouble with the federal government, organizers are keeping the event low-key until closer to the date. But they're still hoping to draw 1 million people to the three-day event, ``Prelude to the Millennium.''

``Just like Louis Farrakhan had no problem drawing 1 million people to his event in Washington, D.C,'' said David ``Thor'' Francis of Bellevue, Wash., ``I'll have no problem drawing 1 million to mine.''

On the first day, Tibetan monks and other religious leaders will walk the perimeter of a circle that will encompass about nine acres to bless it.

``That actually will energize the circle,'' Francis said. ``We will consider the ground under it sacred.''

Francis says he has been approached by corporations interested in sponsoring the event but so far has refused their offers because he doesn't want to be beholden to peddling their products. He's financing most of it from the salary he makes working as a building engineer.

``It's going to be the spiritual Woodstock,'' Davis said. ``The idea is that Woodstock wasn't so much about the music but the experience. We're going to be having a chant written for this event, a magical incantation to bring about global peace, unity, understanding and religious tolerance.''

For information, check out the Web site (www.amysticalgrove.com).

All dressed up and nowhere to go but cyberspace: Check out New Year's Eve Parties 2000 on the Web (www.jepa.co.uk/scripts/2000.html), a registry where dozens of people around the world have posted invites to all the world's people. Ten guys somewhere in ``the middle of Germany'' are inviting all pretty girls to the Ultimate Girls Party 2000 if they send a picture. The boys claim already to have gotten 217 snapshots. That means there's space for 1,783 women.

Options for the antisocial: Maybe you don't have the money for a gala ball or luxury cruise. Maybe you have kids and know baby sitters will be scarce.

``I will not do anything for the year 2000,'' said Elba Robbins, 45, of Calabasas. ``Everything will be three times the price or too crowded, so we'll stay home.''

Robbins appears to be in good company. Lots of people confess they don't have plans - and don't want to make plans - for the giant countdown.

Said Alex Rubenstein, 13, of Sherman Oaks: ``We're going to do the same thing we do every year - nothing. We'll watch Dick Clark.''

So, for those of you who haven't penciled in anything special for the big night, not to worry. Just spoil the fun by reminding everyone that the new millennium really begins Jan. 1, 2001, and you're already making fabulous plans.

CAPTION(S):

Drawing, 3 Photos

Drawing: (Cover--Color) On the cover: Artist's rendering of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which will host a pull-out-the-stops New Year's Eve party for 100,000 people.

Photo: (1--Color) no caption (Different sites, fireworks)

(2--3) A giant clock is already installed at the Eiffel Tower to count down the approaching millennium. Revelers who travel to Egypt at the end of 1999 will be treated to a five-day music festival at the Sphinx.