Nine tonnes of explosives and 1332 steps: Inside Sydney’s high-stakes Harbour Bridge fireworks mission
SOURCE:Sydney Morning Herald|BY:Cindy Yin
At the summit of the Harbour Bridge, the installation of Sydney’s iconic fireworks are a complex equation involving six kilometres of cables, nine tonnes of explosives and 40,000 fireworks.
At the summit of the Harbour Bridge, the air 134 metres above the water tastes crisp and salt-flecked 364 days of the year, the exception being New Year’s Day, when a thick and “addicting” sulfuric smell hangs in the atmosphere after one of the most famous fireworks shows worldwide.
Preparing Sydney’s New Year’s fireworks display to meet the expectations of not only locals but a global audience in the hundreds of millions is a high-stakes equation involving six kilometres of criss-crossing cables, nine tonnes of explosives and 40,000 pyrotechnic effects.
Foti Fireworks crew members walk up to 35,000 steps a day to install fireworks on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge ahead of New Year’s Eve.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Yet, standing atop the steel arches of the Harbour Bridge, the vast scale of the operation feels surprisingly intimate. A key source of the magic is contained within narrow silver cylinders no taller than two Coca-Cola cans, dotted along the eastern side of the bridge, where an explosion of colours, shapes, and sizes will burst from the canisters and into the night sky.
Giovanni Foti has worked on New Year’s fireworks for 21 years, and describes the smell of fireworks as one you never really forget.
“It does smell funky – but once you smell it, it’s something you get addicted to. It’s a weird thing,” he said.
Foti and his family are seventh-generation pyrotechnicians who have been creating the Sydney New Year’s Eve display since 1997. They enlist a team of up to 80 people to do staggered installations in the lead-up to New Year’s Eve.
It’s an intricate task making sure nine tonnes of fireworks all go off at exactly the right time, angle, and location.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Some workers clock up 35,000 steps a day installing the fireworks on the bridge.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
While the workers are spaced five to 10 metres apart to pass equipment in a “production line”, many clock up to 35,000 steps a day walking up and down the 1332 stairs on the bridge.
To make sure nine tonnes of fireworks all go off at exactly the right time, angle, and location, individual wires connected to the fireworks are plugged into a black box, or “rail case”, which communicates signals to the computer, so a firing panel can synchronise and control when fireworks go off.
But all roads lead back home to the “Cracker Hut” – a room inside an unassuming brown structure at the halfway point at the base of the bridge, where signals to set off the fireworks are triggered.
Workers are spaced five to 10 metres apart to pass equipment in a “production line”.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
“Thank god for computers,” Foti said. “A lot has changed, the show is more synchronised, with faster effects, sequences, drones. We’re now doing components of the show that wouldn’t be possible because things wouldn’t have existed 20 years ago.”
Fireworks will be launched along a seven-kilometre stretch of the harbour spanning Cockatoo Island in the west to Point Piper in the east, with more than 260 firing locations on the bridge alone, and eight barges positioned around the water. Dotted across the entire length of the bridge are clusters of large machines that beam bright lights during the show, along with smaller LEDs reminiscent of fairy lights cable-tied onto the structure.
The Fotis are already planning the next display before the countdown for this one has finished, as they operate 18 to 24 months in advance.
With no trial runs or tests beforehand, each year the Fotis are presented with a unique challenge. They get one shot on the night and see it for the first time, just like everybody else.
Fireworks are loaded onto barges ahead of Sydney New Year’s Eve celebrations on Glebe Island earlier this week.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
“I think you have to have your wits about you. Nerves are a good thing – when you’re not nervous, that is a little bit worrying. The nerves bring the final checks to make sure that everything’s in order, and it holds you accountable,” Foti said.
“Once the show is over, after the finale, to hear the roar of the crowd is the most satisfying part. It makes you feel really special about what we’ve been doing as a family and what we can offer.”
City of Sydney executive producer Stephen Gilby said revellers this year will be treated to pyrotechnics in the shape of koalas, cockatoos, and waratahs, as well as a chase up and down the bridge with lights.
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“We’re lucky we have this stage – nowhere else has the iconic buildings, the space, and the reflection of the harbour. But then we have to put on a show that the geography deserves – it has to be good enough,” he said.
More than a million revellers are expected to watch the fireworks in the harbour and its surrounds, and NSW Premier Chris Minns on Tuesday announced heavily armed officers will be among about 3000 police monitoring celebrations.
The celebrations will also pause for one minute of silence at 11pm so spectators and those at home can switch on their phone torches to remember the 15 victims of the deadly Bondi Beach shooting, and condemn antisemitism. City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the Harbour Bridge will shine white, and images of the peace dove, a menorah, and the words “peace” and “unity” will be projected onto the pylons.
“People from all cultures, nationalities and faiths should feel safe, included and respected in our city. Now more than ever, we must hold tightly to everything that makes Sydney a diverse, peaceful, and harmonious city,” she said.
