Before 2003, New Year's Eve in London was associated largely with very drunk people dancing in the Trafalgar Square fountains. But no more.
"London decided that it wanted to ensure its place amongst the global cities that were portrayed across the world on New Year's Eve," explains Jim Donald, executive producer at Jack Morton Worldwide. His company bills itself as a "global brand experience agency" specialising in creating memorable moments, and these include the Mayor of London's New Year's Eve fireworks display, which Jack Morton has overseen since 2004.
"The images of Times Square, Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Eiffel Tower were powerful ways of communicating a city's global stature," Donald says. "London wanted to demonstrate to the world that it was able to put on a show of global stature and create the media moment."
The 'media moment' is an important part of what the Greater London Authority (GLA) underwrites to the tune of £1.2m: the television and still images that flash around the world communicate the essence of a city and the experience of visiting it. This partly explains the very first step in the display process — deciding on a location that will work both on TV and as a live event. In London, the choice is relatively straightforward: the landmark that people associate with the city more than any other is Big Ben. The Victorian clock tower and the equally iconic London Eye are perfect for television and have the huge advantage of being situated in a locale that offers the largest possible footprint for a public viewing area in London, which extends a mile from Westminster Bridge to Blackfriars Bridge.
Whereas Jack Morton has considerable experience running the fireworks for high-profile occasions — it has managed or consulted for events including the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and 2006, the Athens Olympics, the Hong Kong handover and the South Africa World Cup — the challenge of running an event in Europe's largest city is very different from the controlled environment of a stage-managed spectacle.
"Creating an event in such a complex, urban environment, with a footprint that covers a large part of the city, involves significant logistical and organisational challenges," says Donald. There are 250,000 people in the controlled viewing areas that line the river and an estimated 50,000 people on the streets nearby, plus perhaps hundreds of thousands of people in the pubs and clubs of central London. The detail of the plan allows for no more than two people per square metre in the viewing areas.
The creative process behind the actual display is largely left to firework specialists Kimbolton Fireworks in Cambridgeshire. Darryl Fleming, the company's display director, will only start working on the pyrotechnics once he has an approved soundtrack from Jack Morton, which works with Radio 1 to create a "soundscape". The music is used as the basis for various firework scenarios that are created using a bespoke computer simulation programme to previsualise the display.
"You wait for certain types of music to evok a colour or a feeling," says Fleming. "Say it's something like the Mars suite [from Holst's The Planets] then I would say that red has to be the predominant colour. Sometimes the rhythm of the music dictates, so if it's an eclectic piece of music then I would use scrambling comets or crossette shells, which recreate that chaos. The rhythm and the tempo of the music will dictate the pace and flow of the fireworks."
Whereas most fireworks displays are set up in a straight line over a distance of around 200 metres, the London New Year's Eve display involves firing from three barges as well as a unique centrepiece in the Eye, and needs to balance the live experience with that of the TV audience.
"The live and TV audiences are very distinct," Fleming says. "Something that will look amazing for the live audience can get totally lost on television. There are some points where cameras need to zoom in, and other points where they need to get the bigger picture. And colour is important, For instance, gold is very difficult to see on TV althought it looks impressive in real life."
According to Donald, this year's display will emphasise London's quirkiness. "The music will create a rhythm for the fireworks," he explains. "It's not just about 'Land of Hope and Glory'. We want to be bring the tunes into the living room and be part of the TV audience's party."
It's a pretty big party: the peak UK television audience is ten million people. "It's the BBC's most-watched show of the year," says Dan Ritterband, marketing director of the GLA. In financial terms, Ritterband estimates that 30 per cent of the GLA's budget for the event is spent on pyrotechnics and the rest on health and safety.
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