Eight thousand New Yorkers have received invitations, and 5,000 are expected to attend.

The numbers might be enormous, but the event is one of the most exclusive of this holiday season: Mayor Bloomberg’s second inauguration.

The formal swearing in of the mayor, as well as the city comptroller, William Thompson Jr., and the public advocate, Betsy Gotbaum, is scheduled to kick off on Sunday at 1 p.m. at City Hall with a welcome by veteran television newswoman Barbara Walters, who is a friend of the mayor’s. The star of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” on Broadway, John Lithgow, also will deliver remarks, and Liza Minnelli will sing “New York, New York.”

People involved in planning the event said yesterday that current elected officials are invited to the inauguration, as are all the people who ran for mayor, including the Democratic nominee, Fernando Ferrer. Although planners said Mr. Ferrer was mailed an invitation to his home in Riverdale, the Bronx, a Ferrer representative, Kalman Yeger, said the candidate who lost to Mr. Bloomberg in November did not receive an invitation and plans to spend New Year’s Day with his family.

Friends and supporters of Mr. Bloomberg also will attend.

While the content of Mr. Bloomberg’s inaugural address is not known, sources say the mayor is likely to recap many of the broad themes and ideas he outlined during his re-election campaign. During the campaign he detailed more than 100 goals for fixing city schools, building affordable housing, and improving hospitals.

B. Smith, the restaurateur and entrepreneur who was a member of Women for Bloomberg and African Americans for Bloomberg, said she plans to attend the inauguration with her 19-year-old daughter and her husband and business partner, Dan Gasby.

“We hopefully helped to get him elected for another four years, so we’re very excited about it,” she said. “The foundation is built. I think that we’ll really see even more happening, more achievements in the next four years.”

Another New Yorker who supported Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign for re-election, the Reverend Floyd Flake, said he would not be able to get away from church to attend the event on Sunday.

But, he said, he is looking forward to another four “progressive” years, building on accomplishments in the realm of school reform and affordable housing.

Rev. Flake said that based on his conversations with the mayor since the November 7 election, he thinks Mr. Bloomberg will focus in his inaugural address and in the next four years on education, crime, the economy, and housing. “Those are the basic hallmarks of what has defined him, and what will define him going forward.”

Other prominent Bloomberg supporters who will not be in attendance include the president of the Partnership for New York City, Kathryn Wylde, and a founder of Democrats for Bloomberg, Roger Altman, who will be on vacation when the chief judge of the State of New York, Judith Kaye, administers the Oath of Office.

A former New York State Appellate Court Justice, William C. Thompson, will administer the oath of office to his son, the comptroller. Mayor Dinkins will administer the oath to Ms. Gotbaum.

Mayor Koch, who has attended every inauguration since the time he was in office, won’t let the holidays keep him from the inauguration. Council Member Simcha Felder, who supported Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign, won’t miss it, either.

“I’m very excited about being there,” he said. “The first time around, it was novel. But this time, in some ways, it’s even more exciting, knowing that we have a mandate. … He’s not interested in running for other office. It’s his last term, and he’s gung-ho to go ahead with his platform.”

Mr. Koch, one of the co-chairmen of the Bloomberg re-election effort, said sitting through the hour-long inaugural ceremony is typically “like sitting on arctic tundra.”

This year, though, the forecast is for a balmy 44 degrees.

Nonetheless, Mr. Koch says he plans to bundle up.

After the formal ceremony, attendees will head to two parties – one for the mayor and the public advocate at an event space in the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank building across the street from the Tweed Courthouse, where Mr. Bloomberg had his inauguration day party in 2002. The party, which will be personally financed by Mr. Bloomberg, will not be more lavish than his 2002 party, according to the mayor’s communications director, Edward Skyler.

Supporters and friends of the comptroller will head to a separate event at the Supreme Court at 60 Centre St. About 750 people are expected to attend Mr. Thompson’s party, which will feature wine, cheese, soft pretzels, and apples, all from New York. Mr. Thompson also will have a quartet at his party.

“The comptroller’s second inaugural will be very much like his first – inclusive, representative of the entire city, and a celebration of New York’s greatness,” a Thompson consultant, Suri Kasirer, said.

The menu for Mr. Bloomberg’s party is being finalized.