Ipoh’s 1st New Year Street Party on 1 January 2000

1 Jan 2000. Y2K's New Year Street Party attracted a huge party crowd. Photo credit.Simon Goh

Ipoh’s 1^st Street Party of the Century on 1 January 2000 was a huge blast that was memorable because of the huge crowd that congregated was unprecedented.

The event began on new year’s eve 31.12.1999, the last day of the century and was held at a double story corner pub called Y2K in Ipoh Garden East.

It had catered for 700 pax, blocked the parallel road of the adjoining shops but ultimately their effort attracted an estimated 3000 customers.

Y2K in year 2000 was a corner pub

Whilst business establishments and their IT programmers were getting ready for problems that could arise (but didn't) from the 'Y2K millennium bug' Desmond Lun (sorry don’t have photos) the manager of Y2K was busy applying for the necessary permits so he could pull off the Street Party of the Century.

I used to frequent Y2K then. Lun said he received approval from the relevant authorities to have a street party as well as block the road adjacent to Y2K. Additionally he recruited RELA to control traffic.

He received 800 pre-reservations before the event. He estimated that 200 tables with 4pax each placed upstairs, downstairs and stretching 7 shop lots of the block should accommodate all.

The DJ console was stationed outside Y2K’s door and the street was decorated with colored balloons strategically located.

The planning worked. The crowd of new year revelers kept coming and attracting others from the nearby establishments. By 11pm there were almost 1500 and more kept coming. Unofficial estimates placed the crowd to 3000 by the end of the night.

Phenomenal wasn’t it

KC