UAE welcomes New Year with record-breaking fireworks and drones at the Sheikh Zayed Festival on Monday (January 1). Like every New Year’s Eve, the fireworks and drone shows have grabbed visitors’ attention, who come from all over the world to witness. People witnessed a  30-minute drone show with an amazing 5,000 UAVs along with a 40-minute fireworks. The New Year’s fireworks are displayed in 33 different spots across the city.

People arrived before Monday’s scheduled 4 pm opening time. The venue was full of visitors who were queued up at various food and beverage outlets, ticketing counters, gaming stations, and other entertainment spots. As it reached its maximum capacity, the authorities had to close the gates more than an hour before the start of the fireworks.

The great response from people all over the world always encourages the authorities to come together and celebrate the arrival of the New Year.  Some people headed to the Burj Khalifa to witness fireworks, while some visited Abu Dhabi to enjoy the Sheikh Zayed Festival.

Two friends namely Mohamed Semra and Sufian Mohamed come from Melbourne, Australia to celebrate New Year.  First, they witnessed the laser show by the Burj Al Arab and then fireworks at midnight.

Lithuanian visitor Victoria and her daughter Aušrinė witnessed their first-ever NYE in Dubai. “We have been planning to come to the UAE for many years,” said Victoria. “This year, I realized that I had a few days off, so we decided to embark on our dream trip. It is almost like an alternative reality where everything is big, bold, and in 3-D,” she said. “We will head out to another location to see more fireworks. Maybe the Burj Al Arab or Burj Khalifa, depending on where we get a taxi to.” 

A Bangladeshi resident also said, “It was an amazing fireworks display. I never saw a firework which lasted so long. I just loved it. This is the best fireworks display I’ve ever watched.” Even the person could not capture a 28-minute fireworks video as the phone ran out of space due to the extended duration of the show.

Even, the authorities in Dubai provided a security plan for the celebration of a smooth and uninterrupted New Year. The new security plan shared by the Event Security Committee in Dubai, Northai, divided the city into a total of four sectors, such as Central, North, West, and the Maritime sector to manage New Year’s Eve effectively.

Additionally, the UAE government also extended hours for the metro and tram by 40 hours on the occasion of New Year.  Dubai Metro and Tram services will operate from Morning 8 till  January 1, while the Dubai Tram service will run from Morning 9 to early morning 1 till January 2. 

Apart from the amazing fireworks, UAE witnessed so many concerts for New Year’s Eve. There were seven concerts for the New Year’s Celebration spanning Western and Arabic pop, jazz, dance, and flamenco. In this New Year celebration, some of the popular names across the Emirates included the famous British artists Sting and John Newman.