The annual New Year's Eve fireworks display held over Sydney Harbour takes place in Sydney, Australia.
The celebration centers on Sydney Harbour, with major viewing points around the Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge and surrounding waterfront. Because Australia’s east-coast summer occurs while much of the Northern Hemisphere is in winter, Sydney’s midnight celebration is often featured prominently in international New Year coverage.
The event includes more than the midnight fireworks. Organizers have used aerial displays, a family fireworks session earlier in the evening, illuminated vessels and harbor projections. The program changes from year to year, but the bridge and opera house remain recognizable landmarks in broadcast images.
The fireworks are sometimes described as being launched from the opera house alone, which is inaccurate. The Sydney Harbour Bridge, barges and other locations can all form part of the display. Sydney also reaches midnight before many major European and American cities, although it is not the world’s first inhabited place to enter the new year.