Back

The Best Magazine

London 2024 welcomed the “New Year” with a giant visual show

Happy New Year! Spectacular fireworks display in London takes country into 2024

London and Edinburgh celebrated the new year with stunning firework spectaculars – but bad weather meant some other events were cancelled.

Tens of thousands of revellers braved the cold and blustery weather to see London’s breathtaking New Year’s Eve firework show as the UK welcomed in 2024 with a bang.

There wasn’t a spare place to stand along the River Thames near the London Eye as people from all around the world gathered to watch the 12-minute long spectacular which also featured a drone light show and music.

Those in attendance, some waiting since 7.30am, cheered as the countdown started before the bongs of Big Ben sounded at midnight and the 12,000 fireworks lit up the dark and damp night sky.

The unity-themed display began with “London: A Place for Everyone” written high above the crowds before a series of features including the marking of the King’s coronation year, the 75th anniversary of the NHS and the 10-year anniversary of same-sex marriage becoming legal in England and Wales.

The spectacle also used Charles’s quote to mark the 75th anniversary of the Windrush crossing in which he said the new arrivals “collectively enrich the fabric of our national life”.

Further messages throughout the show were heard from mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Dame Helen Mirren, Bella Ramsey, Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, George the Poet, and Baroness Floella Benjamin, who read a poem by the late Benjamin Zephaniah.

The show in the capital, featuring music from the likes of the Spice Girls, Louis Armstrong and Dua Lipa, was joined by events up and down the country, including in Edinburgh where people joined the 30th Hogmanay street party, headlined by reformed band Pulp.

There were also firework displays at the Blackpool Tower and on Newcastle’s Quayside where a laser show was projected on to the Baltic Flour Mills.

However, it wasn’t the night everyone had hoped as events in Barnstaple and Plymouth, both in Devon, had to be cancelled due to the strong winds impacting coastal parts of southern England and Wales.

London’s spectacular celebrations came before New York’s famous annual event, and after huge shows across most major cities in Europe,

 

Post a Comment