Revelers prepare to party in Times Square

A million people from around the globe are expected to fill Times Square Friday for the world-famous countdown to midnight. Between 3 and 4 p.m., the NYPD will start closing the Times Square "bow-tie" area (42nd to 47th streets between Broadway and Seventh Avenue) to vehicular traffic. As in past years, revelers will be directed into penned-in security areas, where they will be asked to remain until midnight, said Tim Tompkins, president of the Times Square Alliance, which coproduces the event with Countdown Entertainment.

Tompkins advised arriving by mid-afternoon to ensure a place closest to the ball, which will be raised and lit at 6 p.m. atop One Times Square on 42nd Street. For 2011, Waterford Crystal designed 288 new "Let There Be Love" crystal triangles for the 12-foot-wide, 11,875-pound geodesic sphere.

Entertainment during the six-hour run-up to midnight includes British pop star Taio Cruz at 10:09 p.m., pop singer-rapper Ke$ha at 10:39 and Grammy-winning Merengue singer Elvis Crespo at 11:03. The Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block will perform a medley of their hit songs on the Countdown Stage at 11:38 p.m. Cruz will reappear to sing John Lennon's "Imagine," just before the 11:59 countdown. It's the first time the song, a Times Square New Year's Eve tradition, will be performed live there, officials say.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will start the 60-second countdown at 11:59 p.m., with help from Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore A. Giunta, 25, a Medal of Honor winner from Iowa who served in Afghanistan. They will press the ceremonial button to signal the lowering of the Times Square New Year's Eve Ball.

At midnight, a shower of 2,000 pounds of confetti - some pieces inscribed with wishes made earlier in the month by visitors to New York - will be released from Times Square rooftops onto a crowd that's expected to top one million, according to the Times Square Alliance.

Grace Prisco, 32, of Valley Stream, plans to be in the heart of Times Square for the third year in a row. The weather forecast is for temperatures in the low 30s. Prisco says she wears three pairs of cotton socks and other warm clothing but doesn't mind the cold. "As cold as it is outside, with so many people around, you feel so warm," Prisco says.

Millions more will be watching on TVs and the Web. The Times Square Official New Year's Ball app, available free on Apple and Android devices, will offer live coverage beginning at 6 p.m.