SYDNEY—An "creation storm" of fireworks, with flashes of lightning and thunderclaps, will turn on an awesome Sydney welcome to the new year.
Creation will be the theme for the $5 million New Year's Eve (NYE) show, centred as usual on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The plan was unveiled on Tuesday with a Guinness World Record attempt - the lighting of a two metre high sparkler, thought to be the biggest ever made.
The NYE extravaganza will feature an aerial display, an expanded traditional indigenous welcome to country ceremony, harbour light parade with 55 illuminated boats and fireworks displays at 9pm (AEDT) and midnight.
In the night's highlight, lightning-flash pyrotechnics and thunder will signal the approach of the creation storm of fireworks, culminating at midnight in a top-secret lighting effect on the harbour bridge.
Images of the Australian landscape will also be projected onto the eastern pylons of the bridge.
Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said 1.5 million people were expected to pack harbour foreshore sites for the celebration, which generates $40 million for the local economy.
"Like our other cultural and community events our New Year's Eve celebration plays an important role in establishing Sydney's identity and bringing our communities together," she told reporters at the launch.
"It's an almost unique phenomenon to have well over a million people sharing the one experience in a happy and celebratory way."
Ms Moore said the event would be the most sustainable ever, using 100 per cent green power, carbon credits and low environmental impact fireworks.
She said the creation theme was to inspire people to reflect on life and the the world around them.
"It's a theme designed to encourage us to think about where we have come from, where we are now and where we are going," Ms Moore said.
NYE creative director Rhoda Roberts said the design team wanted to make sure New Year's Eve was something extra special.
An indigenous Australian, Ms Roberts, said she felt the theme of new beginnings was apt, given Barack Obama's election as the next US President and the Federal Government's apology to the stolen generations.
"It doesn't matter where you are in the world, every culture has stories about a beginning," she said.
"Creation is taking us back to the beginning. It is what links us, it's about celebration, but most importantly creation connects us all.
"A storm is about cleansing, it brings the new day, the new dawn, the new year."
The celebrations involve more than 15 months of planning, 6,000 hours of design and preparation and 5,000 kilograms of explosive devices, including never-before-seen fireworks.
"There's a bit of stuff that hasn't been seen before," Fireworks Director Fortunato Foti said.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Catherine Burn said more than 2,000 officers and the riot squad would be on duty, but she was hopeful the night would be peaceful.
"We want people to celebrate and enjoy themselves," she said.
"We want people to be safe."
