AOL City Guide: Times Sq. NYE

New Year's Eve is celebrated all over the world, but the holiday's undisputed epicenter is in the Bow Tie of Times Square (42nd to 47th streets between Broadway and 7th Avenue). Serious musical heavyweights serenade the event's hosts, but many would argue the celebrities are just along for the ride; as Countdown Entertainment's Jeffrey Straus puts it, "the people in the Square are the real stars." More than a half-million of them will turn up to see the lighting and raising of the ball in the early evening, a continuous musical soundtrack, the distribution of pom-poms, confetti bags, balloons and other party favors, and the internationally televised, 60-second countdown to midnight -- when the ball drops, followed by a two-minute fireworks display and a blizzard of confetti.