SYDNEY—New Year’s Eve without fireworks? Unthinkable! Especially in Australia, one of the first countries to welcome the new year with the now iconic Sydney Harbor Bridge pyrotechnics display watched around the world.
But just days before the show, it was in danger of being cancelled in the wake of a dispute between the New South Wales (NSW) state government and the rail and transport unions, with the latter poised to strike.
Trains play a crucial role in the celebration, being the recommended mode of transport in and out of the city and across the Sydney harbor. Cars are best left at home, with roads leading to fireworks viewing areas closed.
Concerned that the strike would put the public at risk, the state’s police chief warned that cancelling the New Year’s Eve fireworks could not be ruled out.
Then on Christmas Eve, Sydneysiders got the gift they wished for. The state government and the rail unions reached an agreement ensuring that no industrial action would affect the event, even as the bargaining continued.
Not only that. Extra public transport services would be running along the Sydney Trains, light rail, bus, Metro and ferry lines. Every year, 3,000 services carry passengers across the harbor every four to five minutes, according to the NSW Transport.
Biggest ever, plus ‘firsts’
So, the $6.3-million (P226.8-million) fireworks show was on.
Billed as the biggest version ever, the show involved nine tons (9,000 kikograms or 20,000 pounds) of fireworks set off from 264 firing points, 80 more than in previous years, and including, for the first time, on the western side of the bridge and aerial platforms.
Another first was animal-shaped fireworks.
Every year, dozens of vantage points are identified across the city, in free public spaces (such as Darling Harbor, Circular Quay, Sydney Opera House grounds) and in ticketed venues (like Taronga Zoo, Luna Park, and restaurants with a view of the bridge).
The list of venues is posted on the City of Sydney website (https://www.sydneynewyearseve.com/), which also livestreams the 12-minute midnight show.
Free viewing spaces are usually full by midday of Dec. 31, with people camping out starting in the morning. (I once saw a Korean flag planted in the middle of a cluster of spectators who obviously hoped to be spotted quickly by their companions.)
This year, 2,500 additional police officers were fielded to patrol the viewing areas and ensure orderly queueing to train stations after the fireworks show.
A million spectators on site
More than a million people watch Sydney’s New Year’s Eve fireworks around the harbor, plus another one billion people on television and online around the globe. The show has two parts—the Family Fireworks at 9 p.m. (for children who would be in bed earlier) and the main event at midnight.
The fireworks show dates back to 1976, the launch of the Sydney Festival, a three-week arts festival in January.
Through the early 1990s, it was put up by Howard & Sons, the family-run pyrotechnics company behind the celebration of the opening of the bridge itself in 1932, among other national and international events.
The New Year’s Eve shows were later designed and created by Foti International Fireworks, also a family-run business.
“We’re always looking at how we can evolve our show and we believe this will be one of the most innovative New Year’s Eve displays in the world,” creative director Fortunato Foti teased in a TV interview atop the bridge hours earlier. “We just want people to enjoy themselves… No matter where you are around the harbor, you’re in for a great show.”
12 months to plan
Helping him create the fireworks display are 15 family members, including brothers, cousins, nieces, nephews and his three children, and dozens of staff. It takes all of 12 months to plan, and over the years they have learned “what works best for a show of this size and scale,” he said.
One unique innovation is the waterfalls effect, with streams of light flowing down the side of the bridge.
Music plays an important part. A playlist is chosen every year, and the displays are designed to make the fireworks look like they’re dancing to the music.
This is Fortunato Foti’s 28th year running the show, but his pyrotechnics skills go back eight generations, in the 1790s in the city of Messina in northern Sicily.
During World War II, an ancestor, Celestino Foti, was shipped to Australia as a prisoner of war. He went back to Italy after the war but his son Sam chose to build a new life in this city and started the fireworks business in 1953.
Pyrotechnic companies are almost always family operations because the know-how is handed down from generation to generation, Fortunato Foti said. Fireworks are part of Italian culture, particularly New Year’s Eve celebrations. According to pyrotechnics history, Italians were the first Europeans to manufacture fireworks during the Renaissance period.
“Fireworks is our life,” project manager Georgia Foti said in another news report. The team also includes Vince, Tino, Giovanni, Anthony and Elena Foti. Their website says the clan produces some 800 shows a year in Australia. The company has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, as well as in Hong Kong, and manufacturing facilities.
Alliteration aside, there can’t be a more apt name for the enterprise. Foti is of Greek origin, from the personal name Photes or Photios, which comes from the Greek word phos, meaning light. Who’d have thought?
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