The team who’ll be glad to see six month’s worth of work go up in flames tonight

Fireworks light up the sky over London every New Year in the UK’s biggest annual display (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

At midnight tonight, Jamie Beeson will make sure people across the UK get a good bang.

Welcoming in 2024 the best way he knows, he’ll be sitting next to a lighting operator, a sound man and a firework operator in their control station beside the RAF memorial on Victoria Embankment, directly across the River Thames from the London Eye.

And in front of the four of them, there will be a desk with one big button that starts the show.

Jamie is a project director at Identity, the events agency behind the UK’s biggest annual fireworks display, and he’s the man who oversees an enormously complex operation involving tickets, crowds and thousands upon thousands of explosives.

Understandably, it’s a lot of work with plenty of tricks behind the scenes to make sure everything goes right on the night – and it’s a process that begins almost six months earlier in July.

‘We’ll have initial meetings to talk about stories that have happened over the year with the mayor’s office and what they’d like to focus on for the look back, as well as ideas for the bigger party element of the show,’ Jamie explains.

Sadiq Khan is more heavily involved in the process than you might think, he says, with the London mayor even requesting a particular track for the all-important soundtrack.

Although the song in question ‘will have to be a surprise’, he quickly adds.

None of the music played on the night is there without very careful thought – over the years, Stormzy, Fatboy Slim, Becky Hill and Madness help ring in the new year.

The last spectacular show had the theme ‘With Love from London’ (Picture: Reuters)

After all, it’s hard to tell a story with just fireworks.

‘The soundtrack is our key way of communicating messaging,’ Jamie explains. ‘When we start in July it’s coming up with ideas for the music, and how we might reinforce that through the use of voiceovers and news clips to tell the stories.’

It’s only after that’s been worked on that the fireworks are picked so that they can best serve the soundtrack.

Last year, the theme was ‘With Love from London’ – allowing for celebrations of the Lionesses’ victory in Euro 2022 and London Pride’s 50th anniversary as well as tributes to Queen Elizabeth.

Among the sound clips used were words from the late Queen, the new King, Dame Judi Dench and Peter Tatchell of the Gay Liberation Front.

It was the first time Identity had run the show, and of course, it was no small undertaking.

The display involved 12,000 fireworks, 400 drones, 25 tons of equipment and 18 kilometres of cables and wiring, all of which had to be installed right in the centre of one of the world’s busiest cities.

Roughly the same number of fireworks will be used in the 2023 show, with all eyes on the spectacular centrepiece: the London Eye.

There’s just one problem – on the last day of the year, people are still riding the Eye until 3pm.

The London Eye has become the focal point for the capital’s new year celebrations (Picture: AP)

‘The installation of all the lighting equipment and the fireworks that are used on the Eye takes place when it closes,’ Jamie says.

‘It’s a very carefully timed, well-rehearsed operation to get everything in place, connected and operational, before we start the show.’

Areas around the landmark are dampened to make extra sure a rogue firework would stay safe (although the fireworks used are extra safe already – what many people assume is smoke coming out of them is actually vapour) and spotters are deployed to keep a close eye on potential issues.

But this is a deadline like no other. No matter what happens, tens of thousands of people will be chanting the countdown as midnight approaches, and the big button has to be pressed once they cry out in unison: ‘Happy new year!’

During the last show, drones were used to form pictures including the instantly recognisable profile of the late Queen on the 50p (Picture: Reuters)

Jamie is confident they’ll be impressed by what they see.

‘We always try to go bigger and better, the mayor’s always keen to aim better than last year,’ he explains.

‘It’s a significant amount of explosives, so it’s finding a way to use that in this unique area of London that still captures the public’s imagination.

‘There are definitely big surprises in store.’

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Six months of work goes into the UK’s biggest annual fireworks display.