New Year's Eve fireworks and festivities to go ahead this year

The ACT Government has confirmed New Year’s Eve celebrations will be back this year after the last two were cancelled due to disasters.

Firework displays will take place on New Year’s Eve at 9 pm and midnight to welcome in 2022 and say goodbye to the challenging year that was.

It’s all intended to be a family-friendly evening with Canberrans invited to picnic along the shores of Lake Burley Griffin.

For the first time, the fireworks will be launched from multiple pontoons across the lake’s central, east and west basins to ensure picnickers and revellers can spread out along its banks.

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Assistant Minister for Economic Development Tara Cheyne said the festivities will also feature local roving musicians and performance artists at selected locations around the foreshores.

Local businesses will also be encouraged to create New Year’s Eve events within lakeside venues, hotel rooftops and pop-up locations around the lake to maximise trading opportunities after the difficult lockdown, she said.

“It has been a difficult couple of years and Canberrans are ready to celebrate new beginnings,” Ms Cheyne said.

“The New Year’s Eve event this year aims to bring our community together for much-deserved fun and excitement as we say goodbye to 2021.”

She encouraged all Canberrans to come down to the lake and do their bit to support local businesses and enjoy the evening and wave goodbye to an unforgettably difficult year.

National Capital Authority chief executive Sally Barnes is excited for the evening, which will be the first major event held in the National Triangle since lockdown.

“Relocating the New Year’s Eve fireworks and festivities to the shorelines of Lake Burley Griffin allows all Canberrans the opportunity to bring in 2022 with an appropriate spectacle and celebration,” she said.

The celebrations aren’t just happening around the lake, either.

Canberrans will be encouraged to pre-purchase picnic hampers to enjoy with friends and family while celebrating the New Year or dine out in one of the many restaurants in the city before coming to the lake to witness the fireworks displays.

Many hotels will also create special packages to entice partygoers to make a night of it and stay in town to see the new year in style.

“With the easing of restrictions and our high vaccination rates, I hope this New Year’s Eve event will kickstart a return to major events in the capital,” Ms Cheyne said.

If all goes well, it will be the first fireworks display in Civic in three years, after the 2019 and 2020 events were cancelled.

In 2019, New Year’s Eve fireworks and then the celebrations themselves were cancelled after a total fire ban was declared for the ACT as bushfires raged through much of the surrounding region. Poor air quality in the capital caused by these fires was also a factor.

Last year’s display was cancelled due to ongoing concerns about COVID-19.

For more information, visit Events Canberra.