Plans for a family-friendly New Year's Eve celebration in Vancouver this year have fallen through because organizers were unable to raise enough money from corporate sponsors.

A spokesman for the Vancouver New Year's Eve Celebration Society said Thursday that after nearly a year's work, organizers fell $100,000 short of the $300,000 they hoped to raise for the gathering with musical performances, fireworks and a food-truck festival.

"We weren't prepared to scale it down for the sake of doing any event," Charles Gauthier, chair of the celebration society, said in an interview.

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He said the society plans to try next year to raise enough money for the celebration, which would take place in Jack Poole Plaza, and there will be no need to start from scratch. "We just need to get the corporate community on board," he said.

The society, which includes representatives from such organizations as the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, Port Metro Vancouver, Tourism Vancouver and Starbucks, had foreseen an event that would evolve into a city tradition, drawing people into common celebration of one of the most festive evenings of the year.

"We've heard from the public that it is something that is missing from our calendar of events," Mr. Gauthier said.

A previous First Night celebration with paid-access events petered out in 2003 after losing a major sponsor.

Mayor Gregor Robertson, seeking re-election to a third term next month, was unavailable for comment, but said in a news release that he continues to hope for the success of the society's efforts. "The City continues to be ready to support the development of this new event and we hope more community partners will come forward to help make it a world-class success," the statement said.

But George Affleck, a councillor with the minority Non-Partisan Association party on council, said the city should be more assertive, rallying the corporate community and others to organize something to change the status quo that now has thousands roaming the downtown core on New Year's Eve, many settling around the Vancouver Art Gallery. "There's not even a clock to look at the countdown. At the bare minimum, let's put a clock up," he said.

While Mr. Affleck said there is no official NPA policy on the issue, he added that if he is re-elected with an NPA majority on council, he will make it a personal priority to ensure there is some New Year's Eve event.