Orange will ring in 2025 with a fireworks display over Lake Canobolas after Orange City Council gave the green light to plans for expanded New Year’s Eve celebrations at last week’s meeting.

Plans for the December 31 event at Lake Canobolas include increasing the entertainment offering for a variety of age groups, market stalls, providing alcohol-free areas, providing buses to and from Orange, and launching a fireworks display from a pontoon on the lake itself.

The idea is that this could become a flagship event in the region and make Lake Canobolas a New Year’s Eve destination for locals and visitors.

“The New Year’s Eve celebrations have always been a fantastic family event and I’m delighted that a way has been found to add fireworks to the package,” Orange Mayor Jason Hamling said. 

“Lake Canobolas is a great venue that attracts thousands of local residents each year. I’m  imagining the lake as the backdrop on a brilliant summer evening with live music and other  family entertainment.”

Cr Glenn Floyd, who moved the initial motion to look into staging a fireworks display at a Council meeting back in February, said he was excited by the latest plans.

“I was very keen to look for a way to make a fireworks display the centrepiece of a New Year’s celebration,” Cr Glenn Floyd said. 

“Realistically I know that there’s always going to be doubts over whether a fireworks display  in the middle of Summer is going to be able to go ahead, but doing it at the Lake is going to  give us the best chance of it happening.”

The event budget, as presented to the Council last week, is $104,500, comprising $62,830 in Council funding and up to $42,000 in sponsorship from local businesses.

The costs include: $26,500 for fireworks, $18,400 for audio-visual operations, including lighting and loudspeakers and staging, $11,500 for buses and traffic management, $18,000 for bands and children’s entertainment, $6,200 for staffing including lifeguards, $10,900 toilets, generator and furniture hire, together with bins, and consumables, $8,000 printing, media, signs and merchandise, and $5,000 for contingencies

The proposed fireworks display at Lake Canobolas has also received in-principle support from Canobolas Rural Fire Service and Cabonne Council, but the final decision about the fireworks would come from the RFS on the day.

The plan is for lifeguards to patrol the lake, including the use of boats, and for no swimming  after dusk. According to the report to Council, other local government areas hold New Year’s Eve events near large bodies of water and successfully run them without serious incidents.