Happy New Year! Are Fireworks on the Way Out?

Sydney Harbour Bridge – NYE fireworks

Happy New Year to all my readers! I wasn’t planning to blog over the holidays, but I sort of got back into the groove of blogging and as I am relaxing and enjoying my holidays with family in Sydney over the new year, I could not resist writing up a small piece about the new years eve celebrations. Scrolling through the various ways cities around the world celebrated the arrival of the new year.

What is certain is that new (lighting) technology is making its way into the celebrations. The Sydney Harbour Bridge still saw its traditional fireworks, but it was complemented with colourful lighting projections and dynamic LED lighting. This obviously only happens on fixed “earth based” structures. 

We have all seen it already on many occasions, the drones are coming in fast and furious and in bigger and bigger quantities, creating huge aerial displays and sky shows that defies our imagination! It also seems to become a “status symbol” with many city councils justifying the costs and switch to drones as a safer and more efficient alternative to fireworks. Certainly in the southern hemisphere where NYE is celebrated in full summer, the risk of actual fires is high, hence strict regulations in regards to where fireworks can be done.

Drones however are also subject to risks or failures. During a drone sky show in Perth a couple of months ago, the drone operator encountered a malfunction, resulting in about 150 drones (of the about 500) dropping out of the sky and (luckily) into the river. They could not really be salvaged…but one of the big advantages of drones is that they are reusable, unlike fireworks that leave burnt out rubble (that needs to be cleaned) behind.

It is not unimaginable that fireworks is also slowly on its way out and perhaps (like my previous blog about conservation of neon lighting) will find itself on the heritage list as well! I am a sucker for traditions and traditional skills and technology, but I also fully embrace the future as well, so I have mixed feelings about the relevance of fireworks in our more and more perilous environment.

Happy New Year!