Grammy award-winning band The Roots, a former house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, entertains the audience at the Brooklyn Bowl on New Year’s Eve.
Published Thursday, Jan. 1, 2015 | 2 a.m.
Updated Thursday, Jan. 1, 2015 | 4:53 p.m.
Synchronized bursts of color shot from the rooftops of seven casino-hotels along the Las Vegas Strip as fireworks filled the sky, ushering in a new year in Sin City.
Like the revelers who swelled the Strip's streets in the moments before, the party was a little eager as explosions fired with at least a couple of seconds left on the countdown.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority had said it expected about 340,000 to gather on the Strip and below the downtown Fremont Experience's massive video screens.
That rumored snow, though? It didn't snow, unless you count the occasional flurry long before midnight or the man-made flakes floating near the outdoor ice-skating rink on a roof from The Cosmopolitan.
That's where Jennifer Heim and John Jackson of Riverside, California, brought their five children ranging in age from 8 to 14.
"It's surreal. It's like you have to look around and remind yourself, take in the moment," she said of skating on a roof with a view of the fireworks to come.
A-list performers Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga serenaded well-dressed crowds inside the hotel's The Chelsea singing, "We're out in Vegas dancing cheek to cheek." Nearby, Jennifer Lopez took to the Colosseum stage at Caesars Palace, Maroon 5 performed at Mandalay Bay, and Iggy Azalea entertained clubgoers at Drai's nightclub.
Downtown, stages were filled with tribute acts with names such as Fan Halen and Led Zepagain.
Las Vegas police reported 22 arrests, 19 on the Strip and three downtown. Police didn't report what the arrests were for. They were in addition to nine arrests across the Vegas region for driving under the influence.
It wasn't many more than the five arrests in Tahoe where the Douglas County sheriff's office reported roads there cleared up in a half-hour.
New Year's Eve revelers in Las Vegas donned designer suits, wore bunny costumes — the corsets and fishnets kind — and wrapped scarves around their necks as they walked down parts of the wide-open Strip that became a 4-mile-long pedestrian mall for the night.
It was certainly a cold Wednesday night with the temperature hovering in the mid-30s.
"Last New Year's Eve, I was so cold I told myself I would not go without my mink again," Laura Mayo of Las Vegas, wearing a plush fur coat, said as she waited in line to enter The Cosmopolitan to see Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett croon together. "It's colder this year."
A coat wasn't in the cards for the shivering bunnies.
"It takes away from the costume," said Rechelle Sheridan, 25, of Las Vegas who with her two friends Samantha Venerable and Katherine Garcia stopped every few feet for photos as they walked along the Strip.
Others also warmed up.
"I'm not even cold anymore," Priya Clark, 24, of Long Beach declared to friends minutes before midnight with her arms held high in amazement. She said it helped that her groups had taken a full lap of the Strip in several hours and were on their second frozen beverage refills.
Matt Dominey, 25, and Josh Mellor, 26, an electrician and carpenter, respectively, from London, walked along the Strip in William Hunt and Hugo Boss suits looking like extras in a music video.
"You gotta look good. We're representing England," Dominey said. The two booked a last-minute trip to celebrate the holiday. Dominey said his New Year's resolution, though, would be to save up for a move to Australia.
"I need to stop spending money in casinos or start winning," he said.
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