The weather-god was smiling at the 40,000 revellers who had crowded into Belfast city centre to celebrate the new millennium and with it a more peaceful and prosperous future. On a dry and relatively mild night, young and old, families, couples and crowds of teenagers, many wearing sparkly clothes, silly hats and glittering "Happy New Year" headbands, gathered in front of the City Hall to hear one of Belfast's favourite sons, singer-songwriter Brian Kennedy, perform his hits on a spectacular-looking domeshaped stage.

The singer, accompanied by young harpists dressed in blue satin, had earlier in the day given a rendition of Carrickfergus inside the City Hall, before Belfast's Lord Mayor, the Ulster Unionist councillor, Bob Stoker, and the Sinn Fein Deputy Mayor, Marie Moore, led hundreds of people in an open-air interdenominational service outside. Five bishops representing both communities attended the event.

Giant video screens were installed at all venues across the city centre so people could follow millennium events around the globe as they happened.

Shortly before 10 p.m. the Lord Mayor, assisted by two children from Omagh, Leanne Martin and Brendan Grimes, lit a 7 1/2-metre high, three-sided steel and glass beacon representing peace, reconciliation and hope by the River Lagan.

Although there was a lot of pushing and shoving in the vicinity of the stage, the mood among the crowd in front of the City Hall remained good-humoured.

Many expressed their hopes for the new millennium as one of peace and prosperity.

"Isn't this amazing - four years ago I was here to see President Clinton switch on the Christmas-tree lights and that was the first time I thought that peace was really possible. But I wouldn't have imagined all this in my wildest dreams," said a middle-aged woman from Co Down, who had brought her three-year-old grandson along.

A group of Australian students, who were howling along to the Belfast heartthrob's hit Captured, said they were visiting relatives in the city for the first time. "We wouldn't have dared to come before the peace process and all that. But we are so glad we are here now at this brilliant party, bringing in the new millennium on the other side of the globe. Just a shame that not all the Belfast men are as gorgeous as Brian Kennedy," exclaimed one of them. Not all were as thrilled. Gary from west Belfast complained about beer prices and the sound quality on the right hand side of the stage. "It's dismal. I can't hear a thing and I can't afford another pint - £2.50 for a pint of Guinness, that's daylight robbery." Asked about his New Year's resolutions, he said: "Drinking a lot and making loads of money - maybe I should apply for a job with Guinness?"

Martin, from Co Monaghan, was home from New York for the first time in four years, where he works as a plasterer. "If I think that I could be in Times Square now - how did I let my Mum talk me into spending the millennium night in Belfast?" he wondered. "Still, the craic is probably better here."

Three teenagers dressed as the Three Musketeers said they were determined to see the dawn of the new millennium. "Mind you, by then we will probably have to prop each other up. But that's fully in line with our motto - one for all and all for one."

As the clock struck midnight, Brian Kennedy led the singing of Auld Lang Syne as people formed human chains, hugging and kissing.

Then the crowd at the City Hall made their way in a procession led by the cross-community Friendship Band to Laganside where they merged with other revellers to watch the spectacular fireworks.

Although the city centre had officially been declared a "drink and glass-free zone" it took two dozen council workers almost all of New Year's Day to clear up before the next batch of concerts started in the evening.