To ask what it was like to experience the change from 1999 to 2000?

[2020newstart]

Just that really. I was 10, so don't remember much. But oddly I do remember 9/11 all this talk about the new decade makes me wonder how it was like going from 1999 to 2000? If you're old enough to remember, how was the celebration? It must have been so weird writing the year 2000 on forms when you've been used to writing 19.. since you were born

Amazing for me! We were in central London standing on one of the bridges when it turned midnight. Seemed like the whole city were out in the streets and despite the sheer number of people and alcohol being consumed it was friendly and everyone was in a great mood. We walked through the city for miles home to a house party and the atmosphere everywhere was electric. One of the best NYEs I have ever experienced.

PMSL at all the people who think the "Millennium Bug" wasn't real.

Why do you think it failed to materialise??

Every single one of our computer systems had to be re-programmes to allow for 4 digit dates. Before that could happen, we had to identify everywhere it was going to be a problem.

Didn't materialise 😂😂🤣 🤦🏻‍♀️

Before the fireworks at the London Eye( because it wasn’t built), the crowds gathered in Trafalgar Square.

It wasn’t a biggie really. It was the same as every other new year. I was an adult then. It was exactly the same as the previous year.

Had a new baby, my firstborn, so the new decade coinicded with a new phase in my life.

then why was there still so much drama around it by the end of 1999?

Because until the point at which the date changed, you didn't really know for certain if everything had been caught and fixed.

I was pg with DD4 and experiencing horrible morning sickness 24/7. There is a photo of me toasting the new year with fizzy water, looking like something the cat dragged home.

I was hugely pregnant expecting DC3, full of flu, chest infection and Bell's palsy. The people who lived opposite set off a few fireworks and I went to bed. I dont think I have ever felt more ill.

I’m another one who was too ill to notice or care - flu.

I was in my 20s and remember all the pubs and clubs advertising ridiculous ticket prices to get in for NYE. I think I the end, lots of people ended up in London for the disappointing fireworks or arranging parties at home. I had a party, got my friend to DJ, had friends come from all over for the night. We put radio 1 millennium dance party on for the beeps and I got goosebumps when the host said something along the lines of "welcome to the new millennium, wherever you are". It may have been a new year like any other, but all through 1999 we were talking about it. I even got temp work working for a lift and escalator company trying to fix the millennium bug in their products. I assume it worked. I didn't hear of any lift disasters on 1st jan 2000.

It's thrown me off my internal maths having passed a millennium point. I've lost a decade somewhere. I often get 2002 mixed up with 2012 for example and can't truly believe there's been 30 years since 1990.

The London Eye was called The Milennium Wheel and the fireworks were the official opening of it on 31/12/98. Also the O2 was The Milennium Dome and Tony Blair and The Queen sang Auld Lang Syne in there that night. It was a bit cringe.

If so many people were working for so many years to resolve the "millennium bug" then why was there still so much drama around it by the end of 1999?
Because you never know for 100% if something is going to work until you are in a live situation.
You can test and test and test code in a dummy environment until the cows come home but the real proof is what happens when that code is used in a live situation.
The point the computers internal clocks all tipped over into 2000 was the first live test if all the work had fixed the problem.

31/12/99 obvs!

I was 17 and went dancing with friends. Remember then playing Prince’s 1999. It was a fun night. But not much changed overnight, as with every new year 🤷‍♀️

tbh it was all a bit of an anti-climax

This ^^
I was 8 weeks pregnant so saw the new millennium in with a pot of tea. DH got very drunk – the one and only time he has ever done so.

I was part of the millennium bug team at work. The bug never materialised and I will never get those meeting hours and writing up minutes time back

We did a special celebration in the village we lived in then. There were 2000 residents so we had touch light parade with 2000 fire torches. We are in Scotland so had a piped band leading the procession which wound it's way down to the sea front where we let off loads of fire works. We could see fireworks going off from miles around. It was a great night.

It was all a let down. Everyone was worried about the millennium bug, computers stopping working, anything computerised was going to shut down, but the only bug that happened was an epidemic flu that went round.

Amazing celebrations and great anticipation for what was to come. I feel exactly the same for this coming decade even though I'm at a very different time in my life. It's so exciting!

It was probably the same at the start of the first millennium

That would be the end of the first millennium, and yes, there were lots of doomsday predictions and millennialism in general. Plus ca change...

If so many people were working for so many years to resolve the "millennium bug" then why was there still so much drama around it by the end of 1999
I think the media hyped it up a lot. Loads of companies were ‘fixed’ long before 1999. I think this thread has also demonstrated that most people didn’t know what it was all about. I’m sure some things did stop working, but the high street solicitors accountants package not starting up isn’t making headlines.

It was the final nail in the coffin of my relationship.

It was also the first time I visited the part of the country that I now live in.

I remember feeling relieved that we were all still there at 00:01, and then calling my twin, who is an itu nurse to say happy new year.

It was a bit rubbish tbh. Round here all the pubs were either shutting altogether or you had to be in by 6pm as they weren't admitting anyone after that. There was all this hype that it was going to be amazing and it was just a regular night... by midnight everyone was completely fed up of it all. I still remember it as the worst New Year's Eve out I ever had.

I was 13 and asleep by 10pm.
I'm sure for those old enough to actually celebrate it was good though!

Potplant, as Gamerchick points out, nobody knew if the fixes had worked until the clock tipped into 2020. Up to then all anyone had was simulations. Even if one company or organisation or network was sure that nothing could go wrong on their end, there was always the possibility of a snag somewhere else that would screw everything up. Nobody knew until it actually went smoothly that it would go smoothly.