Sydney kicks off global New Year parties with dazzling spectacle

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New Year’s Eve fireworks explode over the Harbour Bridge and Opera House during the traditional early family fireworks show held before the main midnight event in Sydney. — AFP photo

SYDNEY: Australia’s largest city Sydney put on its biggest-ever fireworks display to welcome the New Year and kick off a wave of celebrations for billions around the world.

A record amount of pyrotechnics as well as new fireworks effects and colours ight up the harbour city’s skyline for 12 minutes and dazzled the more than 1.5 million spectators that crowd foreshores and parks.

To mark the international year of indigenous languages in 2019, the harbour will host a ceremony celebrating Aboriginal heritage that includes animations projected onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge’s pylons.

The party atmosphere will sweep across major cities in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas as the clock ticks past midnight.

A strong police presence has become a key element of the festivities, to protect crowds that could be targeted in terror and vehicle attacks.— AFP