Sydney Mayor reveals highlights of NYE celebration

SYDNEY: With just hours to go before the launch of New Year's Eve celebrations, Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore on Saturday revealed an early sneak peek into the fireworks, pylon projections and other activities held at the city's landmarks.

"2022 has been another year of significant challenges as we continued working to recover from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, but tonight we put the year behind us and look with hope to 2023," Moore said.

Noting that a million spectators and thousands of boats are expected to gather at the Sydney Harbour, combined with half a billion audience to watch the event on television, the mayor extended a welcome to people around the world to jointly mark the beginning of "a peaceful and sustainable 2023", reports Xinhua news agency.

According to Moore's briefing, the firework display will involve more than 35,000 shooting comets, 12,000 shells and 100,000 individual pyrotechnic effects.

"They're being let off from four buildings for the first time, as well as on barges, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House," Moore said, describing this year's celebrations as "fantastic".

After a smoking ceremony, special animations celebrating all facets of life in the harbour city will be beamed onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylons.

At 9 p.m., the Calling Country fireworks will light up the night sky, honouring local histories and contemporary experiences of indigenous people through art, song, sound, and dance.

Following that, boats adorned with lights will glide across the harbour to create a visual spectacle.

At midnight, 2,000 fireworks will be launched from the four sails of the Sydney Opera House, while 7,000 effects will fire from 184 positions on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Four city rooftops will also be used as firing platforms to frame the city skyline.

"Lemon, orange, magenta, sky blue, lime... These are the colours on all the things that will produce a kaleidoscope of colours for this year's event," said Creative Director Fortunato Foti from Foti International Fireworks.

"We have a crew of over 50 people working over the last 10 days prepping all the sites and we're pretty much now very close to having everything ready for tonight," he added.