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The BBC’s YouTube channel, which is usually little more than a collection of trailers and sample clips, is now hosting a full 1080p HD video of the London 2012 fireworks display. If you like going “Oooh!” at bright lights, 11 minutes of HD oooh-ing, with music by The Kinks and Soft Cell, is there to enjoy. [YouTube]
Guess you can’t win. Manchester City council decided not to have any fireworks this year and I bumped into a few people who were complaining that “every other city’s got fireworks and Manchester is just being cheap!”
That’s not true. Birmingham didn’t have fireworks even after advertising there was going to be; ensue disappointment and anger. The idea of it being cost-saving is crazy, though. The one spectacle will generate a small mass of local tourism beyond the usual trend of people going to drink (e.g. families will go into the city centre, probably buy food and drinks whilst there), and will therefore generate the cash to at least heavily subsidise the show.
Go figure.
I really didn’t like the fireworks coming out of Big Ben. All I could think of was the final sequence of V for Vendetta.
My biggest disappointment was they didn’t actually blow up the houses of parliament. Mind you, it would have been a waste as all the politicians are on holiday.
Someone tried that already before, and it didn’t work out to well for them
Exactly. Not sure how they managed to resist playing the 1812 overture to welcome in 2012.
guess it shows we brits can put on a show after all!
All Very Well except it explodes around £575 of taxpayers in the time it takes to blink. Yeah Only £2878.79 per second
That could be argued with the fact that these fireworks are a peek into London and an advertisement for the city, which in turn will make people want to visit and spend their cash in London helping not only the city’s economy but also the country’s.
It would be nice to see how one would compare to the other, money brought from abroad versus cost of this “ad campaign”.
Plus it does give people a sense o happiness and pride to see such an spectacular show.
You can’t catch a break with some people…
I agree with mhatti3000, the fireworks advertise London to the world.
Events like this draw in more money just from people travelling to see it than how much it cost to set up. Then there are things like food that people will want to eat on the night and souvenirs being sold. These events inspire and drive up morale of the country that we can do something right. There is no way that you can stand there, watch the whole thing and not be inspired to actually do something with your life.
We were on Whitehall, looking directly at the London Eye from across the river – yet could not hear ANY music, in fact, we didn’t realise there was any. Because our view was blocked by two buildings on either side, we could not see the full effect. After watching this video, I am blown away. Although it was great to be there, you really need to be up high or down by the river front to appreciate it. Being there were so many people this time, in future they should mount speakers along the streets where they expect people to be, it would have made the whole experience for the 10s of thousands of us who were not closer or watching it on TV even better.
Thanks for the link Giz anyway, else we would not have known about this specific video that is very well shot and edited.
That’s the first time I’ve not been embarrassed watching London’s New Years fireworks.
And Holy Sh*t! They were awesome!