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First Night to be fun for all

6,000 expected for alcohol-free New Year’s Eve party in village

Around 6,000 people are expected to celebrate New Year’s Eve in and around the village tomorrow night.

More than 80 RCMP officers will be out and about to keep things safe and sober with road checks on the highways and officers walking throughout the village.

Organizers are warning people to give themselves lots of time to get where they are going and remember there is a zero tolerance policy for drug use and drinking in public. If open alcohol is found by RCMP officers or bylaw officers it will be confiscated and tickets will be issued where necessary.

If you are heading to a party take your favourite libation there earlier in the day or make sure that you have a destination when stopped at the roadblocks. If you have liquor in the car and no particular place to go then police are likely to confiscate it.

This year’s First Night event in the village looks to be one of the best ever. Tickets, available at various locations including the Chamber of Commerce, Millennium Place and the ticket gazebo at the village base of Whistler Mountain, are $15 for adults, $5 for kids 12 and under, and children under 2 are free.

The evening kicks off with a Whistler-Blackcomb sponsored show at the base of Whistler Mountain in the village at 6:30 p.m. Spectators will be wowed with on mountain stunts and entertainment followed by a torch light parade down the ski hill.

Then revellers can head into the gated venue to enjoy a host of musical entertainment including Danny Sveinson, "the Rock and Roll Kid", and Allison Crowe, Nanaimo’s singing sensation on the main stage in the Village Square.

Mat the Alien, Whistler’s favourite DJ, will also be spinning some tunes and look for Mortal Coil presenting their Fire Dancers and Ice Nymphs show. The performers will bring magic and myth to First Night with a wondrous array of characters using stilts masks and fantastic costuming. Fire Spinners will also be heating up the village stroll as they manipulate fireballs on chains, ropes, staffs and hoops.

Whistler’s infamous Short Skirt Theatre Company will also get the crowd smiling again this year with their psychic tent. Here members of the company, all of whom flunked out of the International School of Psychic Persons and Scientists, will offer their insights in to the future.

And there is a lot to get involved in too, with a quilt making tent and crafts such as party hats, and lantern making.

This year will mark the inaugural Ice Tent, a grooving place for the young at heart – but not children – to chill out and get down to some cool tunes. There will also be beading and temporary tattoos available and even a talent/no talent competition for cash prizes.

(Go to www.whistler.ca for a full rundown of events and times.)

And this year, like previous years, The Whistler and Valley Express will be offering free bus service to chauffeur those who want to make alcohol part of their celebration.

From 6 p.m. until 3 a.m. service will be free. However, there will be no scheduled bus service from 11 p.m. until midnight. To get more information of the schedules go to wwwbusonline.ca.