It might not have been as spectacular as Sydney Harbour, as exciting as Times Square or as beautiful as Paris or Cairo, but no city celebrated 2000 with more hope than Belfast.
After 30 years of bombs and bullets and endless funerals, it waved goodbye to the old millennium and welcomed the new one with open arms.
With the security barriers removed and hardly a police officer in sight, the city centre was transformed as up to 100,000 people arrived to drink and dance and sing.
"We have a lot of catching up to do on the partying front," said Mr Conor McDermott, from Andersonstown - and catching up was exactly what Belfast was doing.
Brian Kennedy played at City Hall. Abba tribute band Bjorn Again was outside the Waterfront Hall. A jazz and folk festival was in full swing at St George's Market. Many people were in fancy dress. There were dozens of Charlie Chaplins, Neil Armstrongs and Marilyn Monroes.
"Isn't it wonderful to have left the conflict behind and to see a huge, drunken crowd having fun?" said Mr John Gray, librarian at the Linenhall Library, which was bombed by the Provisional IRA on New Year's Eve six years ago.
From early evening, there were huge queues outside off-licences across the city as revellers opted for house parties rather than the pub.
In Stranmillis in leafy south Belfast, a group of 30-something professional men threw a James Bond fancy dress party. The Porsches lined up outside as champagne flowed all night. "The boys went to so much trouble they even formed a planning committee," explained one guest.
It all went a little downmarket when one woman - disappointed with the talent inside - invited four guys in from the street wearing jeans and anoraks.
Admission fees into most pubs were slashed at the last minute yet many bars were still half-empty as the earlier prices had deterred people. However, some establishments, like McHugh's in Queens' Square, were doing a roaring trade.
Robinsons' in Great Victoria Street, was also packed and romance was in the air with customers Mr Joe "Slippy" Daly and Mr James "the Mighty" Muldoon, from Eglish, Co Tyrone. "We had the choice of a party in a mushroom house back home or coming to Belfast and Belfast won," said Joe.
"I'd love to meet the woman of my dreams at the start of the millennium," he added.
"I'd settle for meeting a woman for the night," said James.
Ms Sarah McGovern was anxious to leave for the Brian Kennedy concert, "but my husband hates him and has lined up five pints at the bar to get out of going", she complained.
At The Fly, in Lower Crescent, manager Mr Michael Stewart was boasting about how smoothly the night was running when the lights at the front of the pub went out and the alarm went off. His staff all started laughing.
