Dec 17, 1999 - 10:58 AM

Greet 2000 in Branson? Seniors Say 'no' to the Specials By Doug Johnson Associated Press Writer

BRANSON, Mo. (AP) - The party hats are purchased, the non-alcoholic champagne is chilled and the fiddle bows are rosined for a set of lavish New Year's bashes. All this entertainment mecca can do now is pray for crowds.

Ticket agents say the millions of gray-haired tourists that visit here each holiday season have been abandoning their reservations in droves, creating another over-hyped 1999 New Year's Eve dud.

"Apparently people are afraid to travel," said Stormy Snow, vice president of Ozark Prime Time Tours. "They think airplanes are going to fall out of the sky that night."

The town's 4,000-seat Grand Palace Theater - where a blowout, 24-hour show was scheduled featuring the town's top 100 performers - still has two-thirds of its tickets available.

The Welk Resort's Champagne Theatre is nowhere near a sellout to see the Lennon Sisters. Months ago, there was a waiting list.

"Sure it's disappointing," says Dan Lennon, the theater's marketing director and brother of the performers. "The reality is that sales are not as quite as strong as people had thought."

Snow said her agency booked 16 buses a year ago, anticipating thousands of travelers flocking to the town about 190 miles southeast of Kansas City. She advertised a $725 per-person package that included four nights and eight shows.

As of Wednesday, the agency had sold just 38 packages.

Great Southern Travel, another Branson ticket seller, offered three-day "Millennium" packages ranging from $300 to $500. All 25 packages sold last year were canceled two months ago.

"People are realizing they need to be at home with loved ones," said general manager Lenni Neimeyer, "instead of being stuck on some bus with a bunch of strangers."

Even with higher prices, officials at The Grand Palace had planned on being fully booked for their "around the World Millennium" celebration, a 24-hour show featuring the Osmond Brothers and sampling 100 years of international food and music.

But the $240 ticket price may have been too much. So far, producer Ed Michel said he's sold just 1,200 tickets - a number several travel agents maintain is inflated.

"We talked to two television networks about covering our show, and they both turned us down," Michel said. "They're going to broadcast New Orleans instead."

"Branson's image portrays family entertainment," he said. "We are just not a party town."

Yet bigger cities are having trouble, too.

A "Celebration 2000" event planned for the Javits Center in New York City was canceled last month after audiences balked at the $1,000 ticket price. And hotels in Boston elsewhere have been scurrying to drop rates just to fill rooms.

Meanwhile, younger artists are also failing to draw usual crowds nationwide, from Jewel to Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs.

In Branson, three headliners have also bowed out of performances in the last few months.

But not everyone has lost out. The owner of the Log Chapel of the Ozarks, which is offering a $700 "millennium wedding package" complete with non-alcoholic champagne, a cake and a preacher, says she's already met her quota.

"We offered just one wedding for New Year's Eve and we have sold it," said Carolyn Thurman, the chapel's owner. "We will spoil them rotten."

-- Roland (nottelling@nowhere.com), December 17, 1999

Answers

living here in the la brea tar pits of country music i can tell u that branson is all hype anyways. everybody moves here and calls themselves 'promoters'. hell, we have 5 phonebooks for this little town. sorry folks, branson is all image and no substance. always has been, always will be.

-- skip (146942@msn.com), December 17, 1999.