E-Mail This Article to a Friend Bring out the lights First Night 2006 BY SARAH TOMLINSON

Boston has bragging rights to the oldest and largest New Year’s Eve soiree in North America, and this year First Night turns 30. In three decades, it’s grown from an independent, creatively inclined party into an eclectic, city-wide celebration that finds hundreds of performers entertaining a million button-wearing revelers. That’s a lot of merrymaking. So here are a few highlights to help you plan your festivities. Events are scheduled from noon to midnight on December 31.

The Grand Procession has always delivered a bit of Mardi Gras–flavored carousing at the heart of First Night, and this year the riotous pageant of musicians, performers, and puppets has been christened "In the Spirit of New Orleans" to honor the Gulf Coast’s music and culture. The parade convenes at Hynes Convention Center, 900 Boylston Street, at 5:30 pm, travels down Boylston, and lands at the corner of Charles and Beacon, ending with an 11-minute fireworks display on the Common that’ll start at 7:10. The air of winter wonderland will extend throughout the city thanks to ice sculptures that’ll include Don Chappelle’s Here Fishy Fishy at Brewers Fountain (behind the Park Street T station) and Imagination by Steve Rose and David Peterson at the Boston Common Frog Pond.

The MCCA Family Festival takes place from 1 to 5 pm at the Hynes Convention Center. Hip kids and parents know about Mr. Ray, who once played with Meat Loaf and now dishes out pop rock with punch for kids ages one to nine. He performs on the Kidstage at 3:30 and 4:45 pm. Or you can get swept up in "The Enchanted Village," an animated miniature re-creation of a turn-of-the-century New England village that’s in operation all afternoon in Exhibition Hall A. See why the Boston Parents’ Paper named Bonaparte the entertainer of the year when he makes magic at 3:30 and 4:45 pm in Exhibit Hall C. There’s also hands-on arts and crafts, dance, music and puppets all day.

Among the night’s musical highlights is another big anniversary soiree, as folk grande dame Odetta celebrates her 75th birthday, and the New Year, with sets at 8:45 and 9:45 pm at the Berklee Performance Center (136 Mass Ave). Sensitive singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik headlines the Orpheum (1 Hamilton Place) at 8:30 and 10:30 pm; he’s joined by local blues-rock movers and shakers the Gentlemen, who play at 7:30 and 9:30 pm. Power-pop upstarts Furvis serenade the city on Boston Common from 10 pm to midnight; Sukey Tawdry brings the saucy cabaret of "The Good Girl Lament" to the Boston Public Library (700 Boylston St) at 7:30 and 8:45 pm. And percussionist/composer and sculptor the Junkman (Donal Knaack) performs on recycled materials with pioneering turntablist Mister Rourke from 9:30 pm to midnight in Copley Square.

Music fans with a predilection for unusual innovations will appreciate the US premiere of Tundravoice America, the collaboration between Taiwanese sculptor Yin Peet and Hungarian sculptor/musician Viktor Lois, who will create original improvisations on instruments they’ve sculpted themselves at the Hynes from 7:30 to 11 pm. The Gilad Barkan Quartet performs a mélange of jazz, traditional Israeli music, and Brazilian and African rhythms at 7:30 pm at the Berklee Performance Center. On the classical side, the New England Conservatory Symphony is joined by storyteller Jay O’Callahan for The Story of Peer Gynt at St. Paul’s Cathedral (138 Tremont St) at 7:30 and 8:45 pm. The First Church of Christ, Science (175 Huntington Ave) hosts a recital in the Mother Church on one of the world’s largest organs at 7:30 pm. King’s Chapel (58 Tremont St) music director Heinrich Christensen performs Bach on the that church’s historic C.B. Fisk organ at 9 pm.

Big news for Japanese anime fans this year: the Japanese Anime series includes the premiere of the English-language dub of Macross, one of three Japanese sci-fi series woven together to form the beloved anime epic Robotech. It screens at 1:30 pm in Room 100 at the Hynes; the Anime series runs up through 10:30 pm. And you can catch the art-house offerings at the "First Night Film Festival," which screens all evening in Room 312 at the Hynes. Boston-based filmmaker Andrew Bujalski (Funny Ha Ha) offers an ode to struggling indie-rock musicians in Mutual Appreciation, with Justin Rice of the band Bishop Allen, at 7:30 pm; New York Doll, the tender-hearted tribute to Arthur "Killer" Kane, the former bassist of glam-rock gender-benders the New York Dolls, screens at 9:30 pm.

"Women in Comedy" finds host Tony V acting as the master, er, mistress of ceremonies on First Night’s Comedy Stage between 7:30 and 11 pm in Exhibit Hall D of the Hynes. The show will include Kelly MacFarland, a veteran of NBC’s hit show The Biggest Loser, and Dorchester gal Deb Farrar-Parkman, a founder of the annual "Women of Color in Comedy Festival." The night’s dance performances include the Boston premiere of four new pieces by Monkeyhouse at 7:30 and 8:30 pm at John Hancock Hall (180 Berkeley St) and Prometheus Dance in two audience favorites, Crazy Girl and La Giornata Omicida, also at the Hancock, at 9:30 and 10:30 pm. And a condensed Urban Nutcracker, the revamped holiday favorite, is presented by BalletRox at 3:30 and 4:45 pm at the Hynes.

The First Night Button, which affords admission to all First Night Events, is $15 and can be purchased at Shaw’s/Star Markets, Store 24s, Borders Books and Music, the MFA, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and a variety of other outlets | 617.542.1399 or http://www.firstnight.org/.