The giant balloons are popular with families

Anyone emerging for a bit of fresh air after a hard night's partying would be hard pushed to find anything to do.

Bob Bone, who was involved in organising the first parade and is now its executive director, remembers it as being "incredibly gloomy and dull".

"Very few shops were open, most theatres were dark and there was absolutely nothing to do," he said.

"And it was felt by the then Lord Mayor, Roger Bramble, it would be a good idea to have something to open up the heart of London and to have something for families to do."

So they decided to inject a bit of Americana into Westminster by inviting marching bands from Britain and the United States to join a parade.

Seventeen years on and the parade has had four name changes, has been re-routed twice, and has swelled from just under 2,000 performers to about 8,000 this year.

We had to create something vibrant and exciting to get a good start to the year Bob Bone, the parade's executive director

Cheerleaders and giant helium balloons now join musicians for the 2.2 mile march which starts in Parliament Square as Big Ben strikes noon.

And the street-side audience, of which about 40% are usually overseas visitors, have mushroomed from about 40,000 to 800,000 - peaking at one million for the Millennium.

Camera crews from CNN and Fox News have joined British networks in broadcasting the parade, which organisers say is now one of the biggest of its kind in the world.

But it retains a local flavour by inviting each of London's 32 boroughs to provide speciality acts, floats and local community heroes to be honoured.

"We had to create something vibrant and exciting to get a good start to the year," said Mr Bone.