A display to make other cities green … Elena Foti sets up
New Year's Eve fireworks on a barge in White Bay. Photo: Tamara Dean
Brittany Ruppert, The Sydney Morning Herald,
reports
The colour scheme for New Year's Eve is magenta,
yellow, purple and red - but it comes with a green tinge.
The City of Sydney plans to make its New Year's Eve
extravaganza a carbon-neutral event by using biodegradable firecracker cases,
recycled water, renewable energy and buying carbon credits to offset the
emissions created by the evening's dazzling $6.5 million fireworks display.
''Hurricane Sandy and a string of extreme weather
events this year are an important reminder that climate change remains the
biggest challenge of our time,'' the lord mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, said.
''Making New Year's Eve carbon neutral shows you
can stage a world-renowned event attended by over 1 million people and still be
sustainable.''
Seven tonnes of fireworks will light up the sky on
Monday night in a display inspired by the theme ''embrace''.
Singer Kylie Minogue is the event's creative
ambassador. She has worked on the soundtrack with the producer, Aneurin Coffey,
has a personalised semiquaver firework created in her honour and will launch
the display at midnight.
Mr Coffey admitted he would be ''sweating it out''
until midnight strikes.
''Every year, you have that big feeling of elation
at having essentially entertained a million-and-a-half people around the
harbour and another couple million around the country,'' he said.
Revellers can look forward to new additions this
year, with the fireworks director, Fortunato Foti, promising a series of
never-before-seen effects including feet and hands, koalas, butterflies and
birds.
''What we aim to do is make each year the best one,
for people to go away and say 'that was the best display I've ever seen','' he
said.
After 13 years producing Sydney's New Year's Eve
fireworks, the display will be the first to involve three generations of the
Foti family, with Elena, 18, joining her father and grandfather Sam in the
evening's preparations.
''Without family, something like this just couldn't
happen,'' said Mr Foti, with his father and daughter on either side.
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