NEW YEAR’S EVE CELEBRATION PLANNED FOR SYDNEY

New Year’s Eve is less than one month away, and plans are already well underway for Sydney’s annual spectacular of lights and fireworks. This New Year’s Eve, for the first time, the Harbour Bridge will be lit up with tweets from Sydneysiders and visitors about how Sydney will inspire them in 2015.

In the lead up to the world-renowned midnight fireworks display, audiences gathered around Sydney Harbour – along with those watching at home – will be encouraged to use the hashtag #SydNYE to tweet New Year’s messages that tie into this year’s theme, Inspire. The tweets will appear live on the Sydney Harbour Bridge Pylons throughout the night, and will be broadcast around Australia and the world in coverage of the first major city to ring in the New Year.

During the 9pm family fireworks and midnight fireworks displays, seven tonnes of fireworks – including 11,000 shells, 25,000 shooting comets and more than 100,000 individual pyrotechnic effects – will be launched from the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House and barges on Sydney Harbour.

The Creative Ambassador for this year’s event is Australian screen legend and storyteller Jack Thompson. Mr Thompson has written a poem, I Am Sydney, which describes how Sydney inspires him.

“It is such an honour to be able to represent my home town – one of the world’s truly great cities – as the Creative Ambassador of 2014 Sydney New Year’s Eve,” Mr Thompson said.

“Sydney is filled with stories that inspire, from the ancient engravings of the Gadigal people in the sandstone of the headlands to the unique architecture of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

“As we prepare to celebrate the year that’s passed and look to the future at what lies ahead, I encourage Sydneysiders and visitors alike to join with us and share their own inspirational stories of Sydney.”

NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Tourism and Major Events Troy Grant said more than a billion people worldwide watch as Sydney Harbour shines behind the backdrop of one of most spectacular fireworks displays in the world.

“I can’t think of a better way to start each year, than Sydney and NSW in the global spotlight with hundreds of images beamed around the world of our magnificent harbour,” Mr Grant said.

“Major events such as the world-famous New Year’s Eve are why Sydney is regarded as Australia’s global city, and help drive visitation and contribute to the NSW Government’s goal of doubling overnight visitor expenditure by 2020,” he said.