workers who cleaned up afterwards, it all went like clockwork in the Old Town where thousands brought in the New Year last weekend.

But there was a lot of behind the scenes activitity going on to make sure that the celebrations went without a hitch.

This year the St. George's branch of the Chamber of Commerce was responsible for organising the event which attracted an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 people.

Chairman Chris West used Lynda Johnson's experience from serving on previous New Year's Eve organising committees to pull off another successful event.

"This year we started five months before Christmas, just lining people up,'' said Ms Johnson.

"Basically it's just a matter of knowing who to call. We've been fortunate because we've worked with some really talented people in the past and they have just come along with us and made the job a lot easier. Jonathan Trott from Spanish Town handled all the music and Dek Froud (of Bermuda Fireworks Company) did the fireworks.

"Once you call these people you don't really have to worry about all the detail, they just get on with their job. We also have lots of assistance from lots of groups. The Corporation of Hamilton lent us their tents and their barricades.'' A link by radio made certain the lowering of the onion and the start of the fireworks were timed perfectly at midnight as the old year went out and the new one came in.

"Everything went off as planned, the people who were here had a really good time with no problems,'' Ms Johnson stated.

"There were quite a few young people there and a lot of families. There was a good cross section of people.'' There was less pressure on the organisers this year as opposed to last year when big things were planned for the millennium celebrations. It did not go as smoothly as hoped, with some hitches evident.

Ms Johnson, who was not involved in the organising of the Millenniun festivities, just used her 10 years' experience as part of the organising team to pull it all off.

"We just went back to the old formula which had been working for years,'' she revealed.

"When I first started it was under Henry Hayward and the late `Jimmy' Williams and it was on a much smaller scale. I believe they had choirs and records and just evolved from there. The Corporation had their own activities back then.'' This year there were some initial challenges with finances for the event, but it all worked out, Ms Johnson noted.

"We were short of funds initially but the people of St. George's came to the wicket,'' she said.

"They are a wonderful bunch of people to work with, we told them how much we were short and the merchants and people who live in St. George's came through.

They just made it so much easier.'' Said Mr. West: "With what we're trying to do we have to do it as a team.

Jonathan knew of a lot of the problems they had last year, which he helped rectify this year.'' The fireworks, too, take a lot of planning, but Mr. Froud was pleased with the results.

"It was just two of us firing, but a lot of it is done electronically,'' he explained.

"A whole lot goes into the rigging of it, but taking it down is not quite as long. A show like that takes four hours to set up and a lot of work is done beforehand.'' The fireworks were fired from Ordnance Island, away from the bulk of the crowd which was on the square.

"Sometimes the crowd can get impossible to work with,'' he admits. "You can't have mishaps.'' Ms. Johnson was pleased: "Dek did a wonderful job with the fireworks,'' she said in praise.

And when the party breaks up -- this year the music was stopped about 2 a.m.

though many people began heading for home soon after midnight -- the Corporation of St. George's workers move in to begin cleaning up and restoring the square to its usual clean state.

The six-foot onion, which was made years ago by Frank Jennings, Bruce Sousa, Gene Lema, Peter Cabral and Mariea Caisey out of chicken coop-type wire, reinforcement rods and coated with fibreglass and painted, has been around for about a decade.

"Quite a bit of work went into making it,'' said Mr. Jennings. He noted that it weights a couple of hundred pounds and is manually raised and lowered in front of the town hall building. It is now back in storage in the ceiling of a building.

By sunrise all is virtually back to normal in the square with little evidence that thousands were there just hours before.

"Everything has to be back to normal by 8 o'clock in the morning so they work right through and it looks like nothing ever happened,'' explained Ms.

Johnson.

"It's like routine, we stick together and move across the square together, put the trash in piles and put in the truck and then go up Water Street and down York Street,'' said Corporation administrative supervisor Shannon Outerbridge who works with a cleanup crew of four.

"We start getting ready, bringing the brooms and trash trucks down, and the moment people start clearing we have already started. We were finished by 8 o'clock.''