Sydney has, once again, showed the world how to live the party life after a spectacular conclusion to 2023 & welcome to 2024.
It began on a disappointing note though. The Fire Tug, announced to make its 1st appearance since New Year’s Eve (NYE) 2018, did not appear in the end.
However, the next event, the Smoking Ceremony, did go ahead & it was the biggest ever – with 3 vessels used for the 1st time.
The Sydney Harbour Bridge light show & pylon projection show started a surprise half an hour early before the visual broadcast began at 8:30pm, which revealed that at it’s beginning that Zan Rowe had finally been promoted to co-host of the entire broadcast after been the concert co-host since NYE2017. New roving co-host Concetta Caristo, after a brief appearance from the eastern roadway of the Sydney Harbour Bridge with Fortunato Foti, the Sydney NYE2023 Fireworks Director, in what was probably the 1st ever live television cross to the Bridge on NYE, partially co-hosted the last 90 minutes of the concert.
In another surprise, the message stick presentation from Indigenous elders to the City Of Sydney Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, took place at the end of the Welcome To Country rather than at the end of the Calling Country: Live Performance, as it has been done in the past. More surprisingly, it was relegated to the back of the stage rather than onstage and so only via television.
The Bluey & Bingo Moment followed but it started a couple of minutes early – potentially causing some revellers to miss the first 2 minutes of the Moment. This was probably because Bluey is an ABC-co-commissioned production for television &as a result, they were allowed to determine the precise timing of the Moment – for television audiences – which was a minute earlier than advertised for people down on the Harbour. It was live in both instances.
Calling Country then started. The live performance & fireworks were, once again, combined after being separate last edition. This meant it started at 8:57pm – 3 minutes before 9pm. It also opened with a film on television before 8:57pm – it’s unsure if this is technically part of Calling Country or just the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) broadcast. However, it was well-produced film that did set the stage for the main performances & displays, which were again, together with that film, the greatest annual expression of Indigenous creativity & culture on this continent.
The biggest surprise though came during Calling Country when it was revealed, for the 1st time since 2008, the Sydney Harbour Bridge catwalk was not used as part of the 9pm fireworks display.
When Calling Country finished, the ABC didn’t let the end of the segment slow the party – they went straight into the concert with a set by King Stingray. It allowed the flow to not be disrupted.
The rest of the event was standard Sydney including the iconic Midnight Fireworks. However, the ABC did slack in the broadcast of the Pink & Sydney Opera House 50th Anniversary Moments. The latter may have been affected by the late inclusion of Harry Connick Junior to the concert line-up, who appeared 25 minutes earlier than expected at around 11:05pm, but either way, the Moments only lasted a few minutes & could have been shown in full. It is unknown if the Moments had soundtracks either as the music played at the Concert, unlike previous years, was not stated by the hosts to have a special link to the Moments.
This, along with the message stick presentation during the Welcome To Country & the timing of the Bluey & Bingo Moment, gives a strong feeling that there is a push to make Sydney New Year’s Eve more of a ‘television event’, like Australia Day LIVE. Last night’s broadcast was ABC’s 10th since regaining the rights in 2013 and the City Of Sydney relies very heavily nowadays on the ABC for the event – the question now is are they starting to rely too much on them?
‘Television events’ are very different to ‘in-person’ events. ‘Australia Day LIVE’ is the prime example. Spectators at the event may have to watch a big screen to see the event for hours as the event is designed for viewers at home rather than at the event. Sometimes, there are rarely any ‘in-person’ segments but a heavy reliance on short films being broadcast to make ‘the event’. Also, if a commercial broadcaster is running it, spectators at the event would experience gaps in the event for television commercials. ABC is a public non-commercial broadcaster.
It should be noted the Moments never used to broadcast but ABC, until last night, started to broadcast them complete with synchronised music from the concert, to really bring ‘the event’ to people’s lounge rooms. The message stick presentation was also, until last night, primarily seen by the people at the ABC concert. This means these are not historically unusual but the trend is going the other way from a ‘broadcast of an event’ to an ‘event designed for television’ – and the latter is not good for spectators attending ‘in-person’ & thus, the actual ‘event’.
While the City Of Sydney did show the world how to live the party life this NYE, the ABC has started to head the other way after so many years of success since their disastrous NYE2013 & NYE2014 broadcasts. It was not a total disaster like those 2 broadcasts. In fact, overall, it was, again. a very well-produced broadcast. It’s just that they didn’t show everything like they used to & relegated part of a segment backstage, meaning it was all but perfect.
My rating for the Sydney NYE2023 event: 8/10
And lastly, great to see Genesis Owusu appear on the concert stage singing after pulling out at the last minute on NYE2021!
Sydney Spectaculars 
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