‘Sydney Harbour Lights’ Parade To End With The ‘Moment Of Unity’ As NYE2004 Lower Arch Waterfall Returns

SPOILER ALERT!: The below article contains details of the light show, Midnight Fireworks & Calling Country for Sydney New Year’s Eve (NYE) 2025!

All times are in Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT).

Sydney NYE2025‘s Moment Of Unity at 11pm has been expanded to include the Sydney Harbour Lights vessels, who are parading illuminated around the Harbour between Goat & Clark Islands/Bradley’s Head from 9:15pm to 11pm. The vessels will all be lit white in the final minute of the parade.

Also, Calling Country will also deliver a message of love and unity while the official visual broadcast will now begin at 8:42pm.

Lastly, 60 tonnes of equipment have been loaded onto the pyrotechnic barges. Also, there will be 112 firing points on the Sydney Harbour Bridge firing pyro from 7000 cues & in an updated figure, 40,000 pyrotechnic effects will be fired during the fireworks, an increase from 25,000 pyrotechnic effects – indicating the earlier figure was just for the Midnight Fireworks.

The ‘Back-To-Back’ Waterfall

In those 40,000 pyrotechnic effects, the Sydney NYE2025 Fireworks Director, Fortunato Foti, has revealed there will be an “ambitious” ‘back-to-back’ waterfall on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. What does this mean?

In Sydney NYE2004 – Reflections On Australiana‘s Midnight Fireworks, the opening sequences featured a stripy golden waterfall from the lower arch. This is returning. However, unlike then, it will be dropped simultaneous to the usual full catwalk waterfall thus ‘back-to-back’. Another expected difference this time though is that the lower arch waterfall will not be stripy. It will be a full waterfall for the 1st time ever.

With a footprint spanning 7 kilometres along the Harbour, we’re doing everything we can to give the people of Sydney a great night with some stunning pyrotechnic moments.

We’ve been delighting & entertaining Sydney New Year’s Eve audiences for 28 years & we strive to make every year bigger and better.

Keep your eye out for cockatoos, koalas, bottlebrushes & waratahs as well as ambitious back-to-back waterfalls off the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Fortunato Foti, ‘Sydney NYE2025’ Fireworks Director

This year’s event will be our biggest New Year’s Eve yet, with more fireworks launched from more locations than ever before.

Clover Moore, City Of Sydney Lord Mayor

Machine Guns, Longarms & Extra CBD CCTV/Concrete Bollards

The below information is regardless of if you are attending official ‘Sydney NYE’ events or not in Sydney. It applies to all NYE celebrations in Sydney.

After the Bondi Beach massacre & Jewish genocide terrorism, there will be more closed-circuit television cameras monitoring NYE crowds & concrete bollards for the night in Sydney’s central business district. At a press conference in Bondi, NSW Premier Chris Minns said regarding the suburb: 

We can’t have a situation where the c, businesses & the community here suffers because the patronage, the consumers, the customers that we’re expecting to come through in the summer months don’t come about…because I know there is a lot of enormous goodwill for the coffee shops, the restaurants, the retail outlets that exist in these few square blocks but we’re really going to have to show the goodwill & the spirit of Sydney by backing Bondi during the summer months.

That goes for New Year’s Eve as well. I’m calling on the people of Sydney to step out, to do what you would ordinarily do, to thumb your nose at the terrorists, to thumb your nose at some of the ideology that we’ve seen online and on social media & ensure you say loud & clear that we will not be cowed by these terrorists or their, or their actions, their violent actions on the people of Australia or the people of Sydney.

It’s really important that if you were going to spend time with your family & friends, that you do just that & I want to send a clear message that New South Wales Police will be out in massive numbers, in some cop, in some cases carrying firearms & weapons that you haven’t seen before, but we judge is absolutely necessary to send a clear message that we will keep the public safe & do everything we can to restore confidence as Sydneysiders go about enjoying the most beautiful city on Earth.

I have spoken to a lot of parents & they would feel far more comfortable if there was a major police presence & that includes with the firepower required.

Chris Minns, NSW Premier

Questioned after the press conference, he confirmed the firearms “you haven’t seen before” includes long-arms.

Later, at a press conference at Archer Park – the site of the massacre & Jewish genocide terrorism in the suburb of Bondi Beach on December 14 – NSW Premier Chris Minns confirmed NSW Police officers will be armed with machine guns & “big” long-arms and other firearms while patrolling NYE celebrations:

The purpose of the terrorism is actually to say to the community in Bondi & New South Wales – ‘We don’t want you to live your life’ – & I think there’s a good opportunity for parents & members of the community to show that they’re not going to be cowed or intimidated by terrorists & that they will celebrate with their family & friends. Now that means that we have to have a, a massive police presence. We need to have huge security available on the scene during New Year’s Eve celebrations & yes, in many cases, it will be confronting for members of the community to see Police with big firearms & machine guns, which aren’t normally the case on Sydney’s streets, but I don’t make any apology for that.

Chris Minns, NSW Premier

This announcement was made on December 29, 10am.

Sydney New Year’s Eve 2025 will begin at 2pm AEDT on Wednesday the 31st of December 2025.