IT is one of the few prices that are likely to have moved substantially slower than the rate of inflation, and, in some cases, to have even declined.

But lower costs notwithstanding, Jamaicans seem to have lost their taste for the New Year’s Eve balls, which only a few years ago had Kingston’s hotels bursting at their seams.

“For the last few years we have not been to any of these balls,” a Jamaican diplomat said Monday night and he and his wife headed to one of several parties that were held in the suburban community of Norbrook. “Instead, we have been to parties hosted by friends. We have found the atmosphere better.”

Whatever the explanations, the impact of the behaviour of this 40-something couple was evident at the capital’s night spots on New Year’s eve.

At $4,500 per person, the price of fete at the Terra Nova hotel could hardly be described as anything less than reasonable.

It offered a three course dinner, with an entree that included lobster thermidor. This was to have been followed by dancing.

About 100 people, by our reporter’s estimate, turned up. The guests fitted comfortably into one of the recently re-opened hotel’s two main dinning rooms. Both, incidentally, had been prepared for New Year’s Eve diners.

The same was true of the Red Bones Cafe, where a cabaret show featured Cindy Breakspeare and husband, guitarist Rupert Bent Snr. In between the couple’s performance was a four course dinner that included champagne. Like at the Terra Nova, the cover charge was $4,500 per person.

About 50 persons turned up.

Well … perhaps price does matter at bit. Especially if there is good food to go with good entertainment. The 2000/2001 ball at Le Meridien Jamaica Pegasus hotel cost just over $3,000 for an event that included dinner and a performance by Byron Lee and the Dragonaires.

For this New Year’s Eve, the price was slashed to $2,500 for a buffet dinner and the singing of mellow Jamaican rock steady/reggae artistes Marcia Griffiths and Leroy Sibbles. There was music for dancing by the Peter Phillips Disco.

The hotel’s Grand Jamaica Ballroom was packed.

“We realised that last year marked the demise of the great, big, expensive parties and that was a factor in our decision to change our approach this year,” said Le Meridien’s Lorraine Tait.

Next door at the Hilton Kingston hotel, the cover price was $4,000 pre-sold and $5,000 at the gate for a dinner and show featuring veteran American R&B group, the Chi-Lites. Substantially fewer persons were there than at the Pegasus.

The Hilton’s Jonkanoo Lounge, for which pre-sold entry cost $400, was filled with younger patrons. Several more persons lingered around the pool bar.

Even the well-known hot spot, the Asylum nightclub on New Kingston’s ‘hip strip’, Knutsford Boulevard, failed to pull in more than its usual week night crowd. The neighbouring Epiphany Too nightclub was half empty, while the newly opened G-Spot nightclub in the New Kingston Shopping Centre on Dominica Drive, admittedly only used on Thursdays and Saturdays, did not bother to make New Year’s Eve an exception.

Proprietors and staff of other nightspots such as the popular go go clubs, Caesar’s, Palais Royale and Gemini also described business as just about usual or just slightly above what would be expected on a regular night, with modest numbers of patrons enjoying titillating exotic dancing.

So where were all those cars heading, making Olivier and upper Constant Spring Road at 11 O’clock at night appear like 5:30 in the afternoon on a normal work day?

Explained one driver: “All the cars are heading north, out of the city. If you check in the Norbrook, Cherry Gardens and Stony Hill areas you will notice several parties.”

Indeed, on Manor Park Drive there were at least four parties — one, apparently, very big.