World rings in 2024 with spectacular New Year’s fireworks and light shows
- Cities light up as many in the world hoped to shake off global tumult in 2024
- In Hong Kong, tens of thousands gathered by Victoria Harbour to watch fireworks
Revellers counted down to midnight on New Year’s Eve across the globe on Sunday as fireworks and cheering crowds offered a hopeful start to 2024 for some, even as the world’s ongoing conflicts subdued celebrations and raised security concerns.
The march of midnight from time zone to time zone brought the new year first to places like Australia, where more than 1 million people watched a pyrotechnic display centered around Sydney’s famous Opera House and harbour bridge - a number of spectators equivalent to 1 in 5 of the city’s residents.
It would be another 16 hours before New York reached 2024. There, thousands of visitors lined up for a chance to see the annual dropping of a giant illuminated ball in Times Square.
Some 90,000 police and security officers were deployed around France including along Champs-Elysees Avenue, where large crowds took in a multidimensional light show projected onto the Arc de Triomphe showcasing the history of Paris and sports on the menu for next year’s Summer Olympics in the city.
Stunning fireworks displays bloomed at iconic locations like the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, the sleek glass walls of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, in the United Arab Emirates, and accompanied a collective cheer filling the air in Nairobi, Kenya.
