NSW: Sydney New Year s Eve spectacular biggest ever

AAP General News (Australia)
12-29-1998
NSW: Sydney New Year s Eve spectacular biggest ever

By John Kidman

SYDNEY, Dec 29 AAP - More than five tonnes of fireworks worth $2 million will set Sydney
alight twice this New Year's Eve - the biggest pyrotechnics display in the city's history.

The double-barrelled extravaganza, a major forerunner to the harbour city's much
anticipated second millennium celebrations, will feature almost 20,000 crackers.

As well as the traditional 9pm sky show over central Sydney, a 10-second countdown to
midnight will be marked by a second eruption lasting 10 minutes.

Almost 1,600 firework shots will explode on the arch of Sydney Harbour Bridge alone,
including mosaic candles, flares, shells and crosette comets.

The coathanger will also form a platform for the creation of a 400m waterfall of fireworks
designed to cascade into the water.

Organisers say the display will be visible from the Blue Mountains.

"This year has to live up to the expectations that have been built up now over some years,"
Sydney Lord Mayor Frank Sartor said today.

"It gets better every year and I am absolutely certain that it will live up to its
promise."

With more than a million revellers expected to attend the annual event, some 800 police
have been rostered from City East Region to watch over the festivities.

The record contingent of officers from the mounted police, rescue squad, highway patrol and
transit police will patrol trouble hotspots such as Darling Harbour and The Rocks.

The focus of the operation would be to make sure partygoers were not hassled by drunken
thugs, Superintendent Bob Myatt said.

"High spirits are one thing but antisocial, dangerous and foolhardy behaviour will not be
tolerated," he told journalists here.

"There'll be a lot of families celebrating New Year and we'll be working hard to ensure
their night is not spoiled by the activities of the minority hoodlum element."

The night will kick off with a two-hour New Year's Eve kid's concert in Hyde Park featuring
the Wiggles and Playschool's Monica Trapaga from 4pm.

From 10pm to 1am revellers in the park will be treated to a free concert headlined by 80s
boom band Mental As Anything.

Trains will run until 4am and buses will run on major routes until 6am.

AAP jk/tsm/kr/br

KEYWORD: EVE FIREWORKS

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