All Fired Up

The Straits Times goes behind the scenes to peek at preparations for the New Year's Eve display that will light up Singapore Sports Hub

- Yamini Chinnuswamy

Fireworks and New Year's Eve are as iconic a pairing as roses and Valentine's Day or pumpkins and Halloween, with one key difference: Fireworks are intangible, disappearing almost as quickly as they appear in the sky.

But even a 15-minute fireworks sequence - like the one that will be lighting up the Singapore Sports Hub when the clock strikes midnight on Jan 1, 2025 - leans on more than a dozen technicians and workers, three to four lorry cranes and a 6m-long container full of pyrotechnics inventory.

The festive fireworks will have a footprint of 150m across the sky, and shoot up as high as 200m. On-site preparations in Kallang began on Dec 26, while choreography and design of the sequence started about a month ago.

Mr Ronnie Wee, 48, a fireworks choreographer with Explomo Corporation, is the man at the heart of this extensive operation. He tells The Straits Times this is only the second time he is attempting to execute a 15-minute continuous display - the first time was during a competition in Berlin in 2009.