Sydney’s New Year’s Eve fireworks are widely believed to be among the biggest and best in the world, rivalled only by the amazing displays over London at the stroke of midnight on 31^st December. The fireworks over Sydney’s famous opera house and harbour bridge are watched by millions of people worldwide every year.

If you weren’t already excited for New Year’s Eve 2017, you’ll be delighted to hear that the first details of Sydney’s plans for the big display have now been revealed.

Rainbow celebrations at midnight

The Daily Mail reports that a breath-taking rainbow waterfall will cascade from the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge in a dual celebration of a historic year for the LGBT community and campaigners for equality. The display will firstly pay tribute to the ‘78ers’, the first campaigners for gay rights to march in the Sydney Mardi Gras back in 1978. Next year will be the 40^th anniversary of the Sydney Mardi Gras. The rainbow waterfall of fireworks will also celebrate Australia saying yes to marriage equality this year.

Other highlights of the display include the lucky winner of a firework competition for children getting to push the button to start the display at 9pm. They will also get the pleasure of seeing their own firework design fire off into the sky. Commenting on the competition ahead of the Sydney NYE celebrations, display organiser and master pyrotechnician Fortunato Foti said:

“I love seeing what kids’ imaginations come up with. I can’t wait to see what designs they come up with this year. It’s such a unique and wonderful challenge to be able take a child’s drawing and turn it into a firework that’s enjoyed by millions of people all around the world.”

5,000 hours and 15 months of planning

Believe it or not, the organisers of Sydney’s NYE 2017 fireworks display will have started their planning before a single firework for last year’s new year celebration was even fired. The display reportedly took a whopping 15 months to plan, with 1,000 accredited people and 300 volunteers spending over 5,000 hours ironing out every detail.

In terms of the numbers, fireworks fans can expect:

• More than 8 tonnes of pyrotechnics, 28,000 fireworks in total shot from 175 different firing points on the Sydney Harbour Bridge
• 100,000 unique pyrotechnic effects
• Over 800 fireworks to be set off from the sails of the Sydney Opera House
• Many more fireworks than NYE 2016, with 5,000 more shooting comets and 1,000 more shells.

In total, 16 computers will be used to coordinate and digitally launch all of the fireworks for the display. They will have a tough job, as managing a display of this size and scale is an enormous challenge. There are 16,500 cues to hit throughout the show, and all need to be timed to perfection. For the on the ground team, they have 18 shipping containers and 120 tonnes of equipment to unpack and set up. Yikes!