Add Category
Large crowds wait around at the Sydney Opera House forecourt for Sydney's New Year Eve fireworks. Picture: Adam Yip/ News Corp Australia
AUSTRALIANS on the east coast have welcomed in the New Year as the world bids a weary adieu to a tough 2016 that saw political surprises, prolonged conflicts and deaths of legendary celebrities.
This is how Australia and the rest of the world was ringing in 2017.
Sydney’s New Year’s Eve midnight fireworks spectacular from a rooftop in Potts Point. Picture: Toby ZernaSource:News Corp Australia
AUSTRALIA
Sydney Harbour has been set ablaze with light, colour and music as another dazzling fireworks display thrilled capacity crowds from around the world and marked the arrival of 2017.
After a year that many were happy to leave behind, an estimated 1.5 million people packed the foreshore on Saturday for a double bill of fireworks climaxing with the world famous midnight pyrotechnics extravaganza.
Brazilian couple Marcel and Mayne Mondoni enjoy a New Year’s kiss at The Rocks, Sydney. Picture: Dylan RobinsonSource:News Corp Australia
The two displays comprised an estimated seven tonnes of fireworks, including 12,000 shells, 25,000 shooting comets and 100,000 individual pyrotechnic effects.
Spectators gasped and cheered throughout the $7 million 9pm and midnight shows and embraced each other with wishes of “happy new year!â€
The 12 o'clock fireworks shot from the Opera House in Sydney. Picture: Christian GillesSource:News Corp Australia
A collective “whoo†could be heard with each new burst of colour and light. Tributes to music legends Prince and David Bowie were a highlight of the night’s entertainment, with purple rain showering the harbour and illuminating the bridge and a constellation of space-inspired pyrotechnics.
NYE fireworks on the Hobart waterfront. Picture: Sam RosewarneSource:News Corp Australia
The loudest applause came at the end when a golden waterfall cascaded from the bridge to the water below.
Chilean student Felipe Ortega told AAP he couldn’t believe he was in Sydney to see a show he usually watched on TV back home.
His friend, Columbian Jenny Ruiz, said coming to the Opera House to celebrate the new year was mandatory while in Australia.
“It’s a must-see. It’s an icon,†she said.
In Melbourne the skies lit up in the city’s greatest ever fireworks display. The city skyline was crowned with a golden sparkle as explosives fired from an unprecedented 22 rooftops.
Almost half a million revellers crammed into the CBD to view the glittering $500,000 spectacular.
Among them was Emma Eastick, of Pakenham, who ventured into the CBD for New Year’s Eve for the first time, with her parents visiting from the UK, her husband and two children.
The SkyTower firework display during New Year's Eve celebrations in Auckland, New Zealand. Picture: Dave Rowland/Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images
“It’s just to see the big fantastic fireworks live, rather than on the TV,†she said.
However, the evening did not pass without incident with police reporting that a Victorian man has been killed by an exploding firecracker.
Paramedics were called to assist the man in his 40s about 9.45pm on New Year’s Eve after a report he was seriously injured by a firecracker east of Melbourne. Police have confirmed the man, from Hollands Landing in Gippsland, died at the scene.
New Year celebrations at Federation square Melbourne. Picture:Rob LeesonSource:News Corp Australia
Extra police are on the beat in the CBD and across the Victoria, with operations bolstered by a new 24/7 monitoring centre feeding in live CCTV footage and intelligence.
Around 200,000 people packed into South Bank in Brisbane to watch the fireworks at 8.30pm, enjoying what Fireworks designer Max Brunner describe as “probably the best weather we’ve had in 10 years for New Year’s Eveâ€.
In Adelaide thousands of Big Bash League fans spilled over for the night’s festivities at Elder Park.
Revellers at the NYE Beach Party at the Opera Bar in Sydney. Picture: Christian GillesSource:News Corp Australia
Aussie Music Icons Diesel and Kate Ceberano sparked up the crowd at Darwin’s waterfront, and Canberrans enjoed a family friendly concert at Civic Square and 9pm fireworks with a dance party for the grown-ups after midnight. West Australians were the last to rig in the new year after some 20,000 have kicked off festivities at the annual Perth Cup at Ascot Racecourse.
Meanwhile, celebrities took to social media to welcome in 2017. TV news presenter Lee Lin Chin managed an affectionate dig at Australia in her New Year tweet.
Singer Natalie Imbruglia posted an Instagram video of the Sydney fireworks with the message: “Happy New Year... Aussie time... from my heart to yours whoever you are wherever you are...bring on 2017!!!!â€
Singer and X-Factor judge Danni Minogue also shared her best wishes for the year to come.
Midnight fireworks display viewed from Mrs Macquarie's Chair in Sydney.Source:News Corp Australia
LAS VEGAS
More than 300,000 visitors are expected to descend on Las Vegas for an extravagant New Year’s Eve celebration.
Nightclubs are pulling out all the stops with performances from DJ Calvin Harris, rappers T-Pain and Kendrick Lamar and artists Drake and Bruno Mars. The city’s celebrity chefs have crafted elaborate prix fixe menus complete with caviar and champagne toasts.
An eight-minute fireworks show will kick off at the stroke of midnight, with rockets launching from the tops of half a dozen casinos.
Federal officials have ranked the celebration just below the Super Bowl and on par with the festivities in Times Square. FBI and Secret Service agents will work alongside local police departments that are putting all hands on deck for the big night.
Drake will be just one of many big names performing in Las Vegas for NYE celebrations as nightclubs pull out all the stops. Picture: Arthur Mola/Invision/APSource:AP
JAPAN
Temple bells will echo at midnight as families gather around noodles and revellers flock to shrines for the biggest holiday in Japan.
“I feel this sense of duality,†said Kami Miyamoto, 21, an economics student at Meiji University in Tokyo, who travelled home in Hakusan, Ishikawa prefecture, for the holiday.
“The world is heading toward conservative insular policies,†she said of the US election, Brexit and what she believes lies ahead for elections in Europe in 2017.
CHINA
Residents in Beijing and Shanghai, China’s two largest cities, will pass New Year’s Eve in a relative state of security lockdown, according to Chinese media reports citing police.
The Bund waterfront in Shanghai will not have any celebrations, authorities announced this week, while the sale, use and transportation of fireworks in central Shanghai will be prohibited altogether. Large buildings that often display light shows will also stay dark. More than 30 people died two years ago in a deadly stampede on Shanghai’s waterfront, where 300,000 people had gathered to watch a planned light show.
Beijing police also said countdowns, lightshows, lotteries and other organised activities will not be held in popular shopping districts such as Sanlitun and Guomao. Beijing police advised citizens to avoid crowded areas, closely watch elderly relatives and children, and be aware of exit routes in venues.
A friend of a victim covers his face as he waits outside a hospital where injured people of a stampede incident are treated, in Shanghai on January 1, 2015. Picture: REUTERS/Aly SongSource:Reuters
SOUTH KOREA
Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans will usher in the new year with a massive protest demanding the resignation of disgraced President Park Geun-hye. It will be the ninth straight weekend of protests that led to Park’s impeachment on December 9 over a corruption scandal.
The evening rally will overlap with Seoul’s traditional bell-tolling ceremony at the Bosinkgak pavilion at midnight, which was also expected to be a political statement against Park.
A supporter holds a picture of South Korean President Park Geun-hye as others hold their national flags during a rally opposing her impeachment in Seoul, South Korea. Picture: AP/Lee Jin-manSource:AP
INDIA
For most people in India, New Year’s Eve is a time for family. In New Delhi and many other cities, newspapers are full of big advertisements for lavish parties at upscale hotels and restaurants. The big draws at the hotel parties are song and dance performances from Bollywood and television stars.
Police with breath analysers check for drunk driving, and security is tightened in malls and restaurants.
The western city of Mumbai will host big street parties with thousands of people at the iconic Gateway of India, a colonial-era structure on the waterfront overlooking the Arabian Sea. There’ll be music and dancing and occasional fireworks.