The Sydney NYE2017 website was revealed last week with less than 4 months to go. It is slightly different in design to last year’s website but it incorporates this year’s artwork for the event & includes new webpages plus an addition to the menu, different spacing & other small changes. The event’s logo was already revealed in July when ABC announced their ‘Design Your Own Firework‘ competition in conjunction with the City Of Sydney.
The updated website does not confirm the event’s theme. In fact, it gives no signal to a theme at all. Given there are no more Bridge Effects, there is a chance they could decide to stop doing themes and make the event ‘just a fireworks display’. They are, though, still trying to give the event some sort of creative touch as we’ve seen through the release of the logo in July.
For now, there is no reason to worry about the event’s theme as most years the theme isn’t confirmed until early December. It is usually just small clues revealed until then.
And the release of the logo in July did have one possible clue – 5 words placed within the logo, ‘Dance!, Radiate!, Wonder!, Hope! & Together!’. These words seem to capture the pondering of what the upcoming year will gives us when we celebrate NYE at a party in Sydney’s summer, which has been the general narrative of the event’s creatives in recent years. This interpretation of those 5 words may be incorrect – we will just have to wait & see.
But The Daily Telegraph last month revealed a small clue to this year’s theme by revealing this year’s theme to the Dawes Point Very Important Person (VIP) Viewing Area as Sunset. That event is also being styled to a beach-house. Previous years of that event have featured lanterns, deckchairs & give-away thongs so this beach-house ‘style’ could be nothing new particularly when Central Sydney implied back in May that that event will be downsized as “the large scale catering and entertainment will not be a part of the (VIP Viewing Area) plan”.
The website also confirms the event program, which is identical to last year’s, with the Sydney Opera House still a part of the Midnight Fireworks. It’s been 5 years since they re-introduced it in 2013 as part of the Sydney Opera House’s ‘decade of renewal’ so it’s likely now it will remain in the Midnight Fireworks for another 5 years at least.
A light show is confirmed to be on the Sydney Harbour Bridge again at least during the Welcome To Country but it is highly likely it will feature during the 9pm Family & Midnight Fireworks too. But what will this light show look like? Again, we’ll have to wait & see.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge pylon projections are returning but so far, with no new changes – even no sign of the theme being projected onto them in different languages (though messages will still be shown in different languages).
There is also a new Ticketed Events webpage on the website for those wanting to get the once-in-a-lifetime experience of Sydney NYE they have always imagined.
Sydney NYE is also trialling new accessibility orientation sessions in the 4 days before the event. These sessions, led by an information booth volunteer, will guide individuals/groups along preferred routes from public transport to vantage points & back. This will allow for familarisation of the route by guests with the volunteer pointing out any event day-only changes. Bookings are essential as spaces are limited. Click here for more information.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) television coverage will be on ABC1, starting at 8:35pm and will feature closed captions, while internet streaming will be done via ABC iView, the ABC TV Facebook page, the ABC Australia YouTube channel & Sydney NYE’s website. The latter, will be global, so no need to worry about geoblocking this year.
Apart from ABC iView, all internet streams will be of the Welcome To Country, 9pm Family & Midnight Fireworks only.
Let’s hope organisers have solved copyright issues so the non-Australian audience can listen to the proper fireworks soundtracks live again. The displays are not the same without them.
Sydney Spectaculars 