Are London’s New Year’s Eve fireworks going ahead?
London is braced for 45mph gusts of wind on New Year’s Eve, leaving organisers of the city centre fireworks reportedly sweating over the event’s safety.
City Hall is closely monitoring the Met Office forecast featuring a yellow wind alert for the capital from 9am on Wednesday (New Year’s Day) until 6am on Thursday.
The event is now completely sold out, resale tickets only available through Ticketmaster.
London revellers will be crossing their fingers that the weather is better in the south.
Fireworks explode over Edinburgh Castle in the early hours of January 1, 2024 — but won’t be in 2025 due to adverse weather
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Will London’s New Year’s Eve fireworks be cancelled?
As of 5pm on December 31, there is no indication that the event will be cancelled, despite the Met Office’s weather warning. In a statement to The Standard late on Tuesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the Mayor of London said:
“We continue to monitor the weather forecast closely, but ticketholders and the many millions watching around the world are set for a spectacular night of fireworks from the banks of the Thames to welcome in the new year.”
Darryl Fleming, who is responsible for the fireworks show, earlier told BBC News he was confident he and his team of experts were prepared for any problems.
He said: “Often it’s things you can’t plan that will come along and cause problems. Like everything, it’s experience and just having that knowledge of what can go wrong and planning for it and getting ourselves in the best position.
“We monitor the wind from a week out, we are looking at and monitoring the weather conditions. The [wind] direction is in the right direction, and if we need to curtail parts of the show, we can do that, we have all those plans in place.
“We are looking forward to delivering a full show.”
Fireworks expert Stephen Miller told the Sun that the wind carries a significant risk, particularly to the higher flying and most spectacular pyrotechnics.
He said a smaller display than planned could be held, adding that calling it off would have “political ramifications”.
“They’re the most spectacular but they’re the most dangerous because there’s a bigger bang and projection of fragmentation,” he said.
“If there is a risk you cut out the bigger fireworks. The wind speed and direction are the most important things.
“You need to make sure you’ve got a free area downwind so any debris that comes off the fireworks isn’t populated by people.
“The wind direction is the most important of the two — as long as it’s consistent, they will have put barriers in place to make sure no one is in the downwind hazard area.”
