Foti Fireworks will return as official fireworks supplier for Sydney New Year’s Eve (NYE) 2023 after the City Of Sydney cancelled an ill-thought-out tender process, which combined the provision of fireworks with the barges & tugs for the 1st time ever.
Polaris Marine will also once again provide the barges & tugs for Sydney NYE2023.
The now-cancelled tender process covered Sydney NYE2023 & 2024 with 2 two-edition optional extensions and was designed with “operational efficiencies” & “contractual benefits” in mind. However, this did not end up working as intended. The tender required partnering with a barge & tug supplier & worse, the name of the tender was just for ‘fireworks displays’.
In the end, Foti Fireworks were the only applying tenderer without a barge & tug supplier. Polaris Marine, the previous barge & tug supplier, did not apply. Howard & Sons Pyrotechnics, the Foti family’s main rival did not put a tender application in for what probably is the 1st time ever.
As Sydney NYE2023’s fireworks needed to be ordered by Tuesday the 28th of February 2023, the City Of Sydney decided unanimously at a Council meeting on Monday the 20th of February 2023 to allow Foti Fireworks to be the fireworks supplier for Sydney NYE2023 and to cancel the tender. As the tender was cancelled, the City Of Sydney decided unanimously allow Polaris Marine to be the barges & tugs supplier for Sydney NYE2023.
The City Of Sydney will now reconsider the combined fireworks-barge/tug model & conduct more requirement scoping & market research including “supplier consultation” on the future tender model before issuing the new tenders for Sydney NYE2024 onwards by Monday the 1st of May 2023.
EOI To Open For New Environmentally Sustainable Sydney NYE Ideas/Technology
At the Corporate, Finance, Properties & Tenders Committee Meeting of Monday the 13th of February 2023, it was revealed that the City Of Sydney will “look at”/”talk to new ideas for Sydney NYE” later in 2023.
More detail was provided at the Council meeting of Monday the 20th of February via a memo about pyrotechnic alternatives, which revealed it would be an “Expression of Interest to invite new ideas and technologies for future” Sydney NYE editions, particularly in regard to environmental sustainability.
Watch this space. Is the event’s lack of creativity finally about to reverse?
Sydney Spectaculars 