2000 Today (ABC Australia): Western Europe Midnight

Midnight celebrations for western and central Europe on the Central Europe Time zone (CET, UTC + 1.00) by ABC Australia as part of the international broadcast of '2000 Today' which involved segments from over 60 countries worldwide. The ABC was the Australian broadcaster, which provided several segments for the international broadcast. The program was an international consortium led by the BBC in the United Kingdom and WGBH in the United States.

This segment includes midnight celebrations at a number of cities on Central European Time, by order of their first appearance:

Paris, France;
Amsterdam, Netherlands;
Berlin, Germany;
Stockholm, Sweden;
Madrid, Spain;
Vatican City (listed as Rome, Italy), followed by a brief cross to London despite being one hour behind CET;
Oslo, Norway;
Prague, Czech Republic;
Warsaw, Poland;
Vienna, Austria;
Budapest, Hungary;
Copenhagen, Denmark;
Geneva, Switzerland.

After the midnight celebrations in these cities the broadcast crosses to St Peter's Square (28:34) where Pope John Paul II delivers a New Years address to the large crowd gathered. 2000 was the Great Jubilee year for the Roman Catholic church.

After some more midnight celebrations the broadcast crosses to an unusual percussion performance in Stockholm – with the instruments made completely of ice.

Hosts of the ABC broadcast of 2000 Today were as follows with approximate times in AEDT (UTC + 11.00) which commenced at 8.30PM on December 31
2030 -- 0030 George Negus
2300 -- 0200 Maxine McKew
0130 -- 0515 Deborah Kennedy
0300 -- 0430 Mike Bailey
0500 -- 0730 George Negus
0520 -- 0730 Andrea Stretton
0730 -- 1030 Caroline Baum
0730 -- 1030 John Lombard
1030 -- 1230 Jennifer Byrne
1145 -- 1350 James O'Loghlin
1230 -- 1400 Peter Thompson
1350 -- 1615 George Negus
1440 -- 1540 Daniel Marsden
1615 -- 1820 Peter Thompson
1615 -- 1905 Kathy Bowlen
(ABC NEWS BULLETIN TO 1930)
1930 -- 2200 George Negus
2030 -- 2115 Kathy Bowlen

Short appearances were also made by film director Bruce Beresford, veteran ABC newsreader James Dibble and future Media Watch host Paul Barry.

This segment was recorded on VHS tape from an over-the-air broadcast from ABV-2 Melbourne on Saturday January 1, 2000.