Sydney New Year’s Eve spectacular fireworks welcome 2020

Sydney New Year’s Eve spectacular fireworks welcome 2020 (Photo by Hanyue Li)

Sydney, Jan. 1 (People’s Daily Online/Yuting Ma) On the evening of 31 Dec. 2019, over one million revelers celebrated New Year's Eve at Sydney Harbour in Sydney, Australia. As one of the first cities on earth to ring in the new year, Sydney spectacular fireworks lit up the sky to welcome 2020.

Sydney’s organizers had been perfecting the city's New Year's Eve display for the last 15 months, with more than eight tonnes of fireworks and a huge lighting beam brightened the sky.

Fireworks director Fortunato Foti, who has worked on every New Year's Eve since 1997, said “Fireworks is about bringing communities together, not only from Sydney, from rural areas, from interstate and overseas—it's about bringing a bit of happiness to people”.

New Year’s Eve 2020 was the most choreographed event to date. More than 100,000 pyrotechnic effects featured across the two major harbor fireworks displays. These included color-changing stars, stained glass designed shells, glittering willow effects and 'pyrograms' producing 2D shapes. Revelers saw pyro mine letters spelling out 'Sydney' fall from the bridge as they counted down to midnight.

Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore said, “The Sydney New Year's Eve show is our gift to the world. It's about saying welcome to Sydney and welcome to 2020 - to locals, visitors, migrants, refugees and more than one billion viewers across the globe.

In the face of the horrific ongoing bushfires in Australia, the local government harnessed the enormous power of the event to raise more money for the Australian Red Cross' Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund.

It is said that the Refugee Council of Australia is the City of Sydney's official charity partner for New Year's Eve, showing a movement of welcome. As of the morning of January 1, the total amount raised online has exceeded $2 million, with continuing to roll in.