New Year’s Eve fireworks that were called off last year on the Las Vegas Strip due to the coronavirus pandemic are returning with hopes for big crowds, even as the emerging omicron variant continues to spread.

City tourism and elected officials, most wearing masks, stood on an indoor stage with sparkling pyrotechnics and a background emblazoned with “2022” late last week to announce the Deuces Wild-themed event and the addition of an eighth hotel-top fireworks launching spot.

“Aside from last year, ‘America’s Party’ has been the culminating event of the entire year for more than 20 years,” said Pat Christenson, president of Las Vegas Events, a non-profit agency created to produce and support big events.

Thousands of revellers still congregated on casino-lined Las Vegas Boulevard to ring in 2021 despite the cancelled fireworks. There was no mention during the event of the possible effect of the emergence and spread in recent weeks of the omicron variant of COVID-19.

Reported cases of COVID-19 have generally declined in Nevada in recent weeks, including in and around Las Vegas, but health officials reported the first identified case of a person with the omicron variant in the state last week in the Las Vegas area.

Fireworks were first held on the Strip on the last night of 2000. The display has helped make New Year’s Eve one of Las Vegas’ biggest events, drawing more than 300,000 revellers, according to tourism officials, and filling more than 250,000 hotel rooms.

‘Fireworks by Grucci’ designs and choreographs the eight-minute pyrotechnic display from atop resort properties that last year included MGM Grand, Aria, Planet Hollywood, Caesars Palace, Treasure Island, Venetian, and The STRAT tower. It is accompanied by a soundtrack airing on two on FM radio stations in Las Vegas.

This year the show will add Resorts World Las Vegas, which opened last June.

A Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority executive, H. Fletch Brunelle, noted that entertainers booked at various venues for New Year’s weekend include Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, and Usher.