Sydney, after a two-year hiatus due to restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as one of the first cities in the world welcomed the new year 2023 with an ambitious “Kaleidoscope of Colours” fireworks display .
One component of the show was a rainbow-colored waterfall cascading from the Bay Bridge in honor of the city’s World Pride in February.
According to Australian public television ABC, around one million people would have gathered this year to watch the traditional fireworks in the area of the Bay Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.
Many of them have occupied the best seats to watch the fireworks already in the morning.
Meanwhile, around half a billion people around the world watched the Sydney fireworks remotely.
About 9,000 rockets were launched during the fireworks, at a cost of $39 million, according to event organizers.
However, the first countries to welcome the new year 2023 were Samoa and Kiribati.
This time, after a two-year break, tourists also attended the New Year celebrations in both island archipelagos.
Both countries in the Pacific region closed their borders in March 2020 due to the pandemic. Kiribati reopened them in August and Samoa in September.
The arrival of the year 2023 was greeted with New Zealand’s synchronized pyrotechnic fireworks, which started at exactly the same time at midnight in Apia, the capital of Samoa, and on the archipelago’s largest island, Savaii .
Although Kiribati’s largest island, Kiritimati, with a population of 5,000, is the first to ring in the New Year, there have been no major events.
The largest city in the world where the first fireworks to welcome the new year took place was Auckland, where the festivities were canceled last year due to Covid-19.
The New Year’s circle will close in 24 hours in American Samoa, just 220 kilometers east of Samoa.
