Back in 1983, Sydney New Year’s Eve (NYE) was in its 8th edition – a sporadic series of concerts floating around Sydney Harbour with a Midnight Fireworks display on a barge. Violence in the city on the night was common. Cyndi Lauper had just released her hit song Girls Just Want To Have Fun & Sydney NYE was directed by a man, the creator of the event back in 1976, Stephen Hall. It took 29 years after the inception of the event before a woman produced it & 32 years before a woman creative directed it. Now, in 2024, with more women than ever working on the event, they put on an edition that focused entirely on women, whether through current issues like breast cancer or on major historical figures like Barangaroo, they showed Cyndi Lauper‘s 1983 hit is no longer simply a wish but a reality. They helped Sydney welcome in 2025 by showing the world that girls do know how to & can have fun.
At 8:30pm, a Welcome To Country was held as part of the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylon projections (though televised as a video on a few minutes delay). However, the projections were very meaningless without knowing what they were saying. Last year’s had transcripts provided. The message stick presentation from Indigenous elders to the City Of Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, was also completely removed this edition.
In the broadcast, roving co-host Concetta Caristo, after partially co-hosting the last 90 minutes of the concert last year, ended up co-hosting all but the first 18 minutes of the broadcast. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation must have been pleased with her co-hosting during Sydney NYE2023. Whilst Zan Rowe was only added to full hosting duties last edition, maybe Concetta Caristo is being lined up as a potential future permanent host?
Calling Country then started at 8:57pm. The live performance started late & thus, ran into the 1st 13 seconds of the fireworks, though on television this was unnoticeable as the rhythm of the finale of Nooky‘s Country’s Calling, performed with Becca Hatch & Kaiit, blended in with the start of the fireworks. The beginning of the fireworks saw the debut of a new western pontoon, which despite the location noted on boating maps was more centred to the middle of the Sydney Harbour Bridge than advertised – all the better! At the same time, the Australian debut of the aerial pyrotechnic platforms (drones) occurred & as expected, they were not on the scale of Paris. However, it was what was expected for its Australian debut – just doing simple shots out into the air in a horizontal alignment of drones – though during the Midnight Fireworks, they went a bit riskier by putting the drones above one another for the final 10 second countdown. A disappointing aspect to the drones was that they were advertised to be in-between the Sydney Harbour Bridge & Opera House when in reality, they were more north of the Opera House and some, to the north-east of the World Heritage site. Those spectators around Circular Quay looking for the drones may have had their views of this limited by the Sydney Opera House & the Toaster buildings. We understand the drones were lifted off from Man O’War Steps, flying along the eastern side of the Opera House to their show position, about 4 minutes prior to each display.
Shortly after the ‘Calling Country Fireworks’ started, a big surprise happened on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which last year notably lacked any fireworks at 9pm for the 1st time in 15 years. The debut of a new type of waterfall – the pattern waterfall!
Apart from the traditional dripping candle waterfall, which has featured in Sydney fireworks displays since the 1880’s & from the Sydney Harbour Bridge since 1986, the last debut of a waterfall was in 2009, when the Roman candle waterfall made its debut. The pattern waterfall uses precision millisecond timing & slow falling pyrotechnics called “drop comets” to create images as they fall to the water. The 1st image was of a blue shark, which was followed by a yellow shark & then an orange fish. The pattern waterfall returned in the Midnight Fireworks very briefly at the very beginning, in what was probably the biggest start to a new year in Sydney since the Millennium’s famous Big Bang moment. So many fireworks were fired around the Harbour at that moment, it was easy not to see the pattern waterfall. The word ‘Sydney’ fell just a moment after the clock struck Midnight, though from the western side, read back to front but they got Bridge fireworks shooting out to them this year so that makes up for that, even though the hangars weren’t used on that side in the end too. Whilst the word ‘Sydney’ usually appears at the start, the amount of fireworks fired in the moment meant it should have been placed at less crowded moment in the display, given it was its debut.
Last year, the Calling Country projections were found to be shown at other times of the night thus reducing their significance at 9pm. This year, the final 4 minutes were repeated once later in the night at 11:45pm so only the 1st 5 minutes were exclusive to 9pm. The Midnight Fireworks projections were shown throughout the night too this year & apart from their transitions being synchronised to the soundtrack at Midnight, the images during the fireworks had no narrative development after Midnight compared to before Midnight so the projections shouldn’t be considered part of the Midnight Fireworks show. Nevertheless, the pyrotechnic & light element was brilliant as usual.
In the end, for Calling Country, it is still the greatest annual expression of Indigenous creativity & culture on this continent.
The Pink Moment, which was due to begin at a rescheduled (on the morning of the event) 10:25pm, in fact started pretty much on the originally scheduled time but a minute late at 10:01pm – for a ‘2 Hours To Go’ projection, understandably. However, unlike previous Moments that last no more than 5 minutes, this year the Pink Moment lasted until the Robbie Williams Sing-Along just before quarter to Midnight, well past the 30-minute advertised duration. Well, at least on the Sydney Harbour Lights boats. The pylon projections only featured in 2 separate slots – the 1st for 5 minutes at 10:01pm & the 2nd for 2 minutes at 10:55pm. The Sydney Harbour Bridge was also lit pink during these times & for a little bit longer. 10 buildings were advertised to feature in this Moment but excluding the pylons, we didn’t see any light up.
The Robbie Williams Sing-Along also began early by a few minutes & only featured 1 song, Better Man, which clearly was chosen to promote his film of the same name that is currently in cinemas. Despite lyrics being provided on the pylons to help spectators, Robbie managed to humorously change a few of the lyrics, when he sung, to promote his movie. It was disappointing the lyrics weren’t put on the TV broadcast for viewers as it would have brought the actual event closer to the wider audience.
The many schedule changes during this part of the night & even pre-event in the morning made it very confusing to figure out if you had missed a part of the program or not. If the program says 11:45pm, it should be at 11:45pm, not 11:42pm & you shouldn’t change the schedule by 25 minutes, only to have it take place at the originally scheduled time. This obviously can’t happen at Midnight but neither at any other time of the event in any case. It is very inconvenient for spectators, listeners & viewers.
The rest of the event was standard Sydney including the iconic Midnight Fireworks, though the barge finale could have been longer. The TV broadcast was an improvement on last year’s though more of the pyro from the drones (particularly the Midnight countdown) & the western lower arch and catwalk of the Bridge should have been shown, particularly as it was their debut year.
Whilst the spotlights on the barges weren’t very visible in the broadcast, they were there appearing about 2.5 minutes into the Midnight Fireworks & are particularly noticeable after the finale. Their lack of visibility might the reason why they have not been done since the early 1990’s but in 2015, the light show on the Sydney Harbour Bridge was similar poor before reaching perfection the following edition with the light show we still see today so let’s give the City Of Sydney a chance on that.
With more women working on Sydney NYE than ever before & strong links creatively to women through Barangaroo, her fellow fisherwoman & breast cancer, the women of Sydney have shown everyone how to have fun on NYE.
My rating for the Sydney NYE2024 event: 9/10
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Sydney Spectaculars 
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