The London Eye is the main backdrop for London's annual New Year's Eve fireworks on the River Thames.
The London celebration uses the riverside area around the London Eye, with fireworks launched from barges and from the wheel itself in the modern event format. The display is watched by large crowds along the Thames and by television audiences in the United Kingdom and abroad. The wheel's illuminated circular structure gives the fireworks a recognizable visual center.
Big Ben is closely associated with the midnight moment because its clock tower and chimes symbolize London, but it is not the primary fireworks landmark. Tower Bridge is another common guess because it is an iconic Thames crossing, yet the official display is centered farther upstream near the London Eye. The event became a major annual public spectacle in the early twenty-first century.