An explosive night to remember

London's New Year's Eve will see 40 tonnes of fireworks being ignited against a backdrop of landmark buildings including Big Ben, Canary Wharf and Battersea Power Station.

The display is being designed by the man who masterminded the extraordinary pyrotechnics which closed the Sydney Olympics.

The 15-minute spectacular, costing more than £1million, will take place across the city at 7pm, five hours earlier than the fireworks of last year's Millennium Eve, a move aimed to encourage children and families to come out to see them.

The decision to have a second successive display on 31 December follows an Evening Standard campaign proposing that last year's fireworks, which brought the biggest crowds to central London since the Queen's Coronation almost 50 years earlier, should become an annual fixture.

Mayor Ken Livingstone agreed and appointed Bob Geldof, who has been running Dublin's St Patrick's Day display for several years, to devise a programme that would match last year's, an evening which, despite fierce competition from Sydney, Paris and New York, saw CNN vote London's the world's best display.

The innovation this year - igniting several separate firework caches from the roof of some of the capital's best known buildings - has been dictated to organisers by security and transport concerns.

Last year saw some dangerous overcrowding as three million people tried to reach the most popular viewing points along the Thames. The much-hyped River of Fire was arguably a damp squib and hundreds of thousands of people had appalling problems getting home on public transport afterwards. This year, with as many people expected again, it was clear that there needed to be a radical rethink.

Apart from lighting the blue touch paper earlier, the main change involves spreading the fireworks out geographically, away from the river, to make the event safer by discouraging overcrowding.

The best views will be from higher points like Parliament Hill, Primrose Hill and Crystal Palace (more precise details will be released nearer to the day itself). The organisers are hoping this will encourage people to walk to their nearest viewing point, rather than piling extra pressure on to public transport in central London.

Geldof's production company, 10 Alps, say there will be both rooftop and land-based firing points at various sites in London. Though details are scant, it promises computer-controlled "spectacular choreography" with a soundtrack broadcast across London on its own sound system and going out live on Capital FM.

One reason for the organisers' reserve is the "logistical nightmare" of agreeing everything with the Mayor, the borough councils, the police, fire service, the Health and Safety Executive and others. Another is to discourage hype, which led to so much disappointment over the River of Fire last year.

The Millennium Commission is providing £1.5 million of Lottery money with a similar sum provided by the event's main sponsor, internet company Yahoo! The private sponsor-ship will pay for the fireworks themselves, the public money for associated events. Further sponsors are hoped for.

Mr Livingstone and Geldof will also announce at a press conference today that the dis-play will be the climax of a day-long street festival based around four so-called "ball-room" areas - large squares embellished with chandeliers hanging from cranes and the sort of speaker stands usually seen at rock concerts.

Music - including ballroom dance, country and steel bands - will be provided by dozen of bands with the sounds getting "younger" as the evening progresses.

The ballrooms, in Russell Square, Bermondsey Market and other streets yet to be confirmed in Wandsworth and Westminster, will host performances from fire-eaters, mimes and magicians. Geldof also hopes to get funfairs into London for the day to provide a self-financing extra dimension around town.

A dozen giant screens showing live broadcasts from around London will link each of the parties.

They will also broadcast videos shot as part of the £11.5 million Lottery-funded project, Millennium Memories, which has been going on throughout the year, allowing 1,400 different arts projects to take place across the 33 Greater London boroughs.

The day as it unfolds will also be the subject of live webcasts on the internet.

To give the whole city a feeling of festivity, Geldof is trying to ensure that as many churches, synagogues and mosques as possible are open and that churches have their bells ringing all day. Museums and art galleries will be open and entry will be free, he hopes.

A piece of music called Ringing the Changes, by avantgarde composer David Toop, will open the festival at noon and then be played intermittently throughout the day, coinciding with the ringing of the real church bells. There is also likely to be a parade.

After the 7pm fireworks, much of the activity will wind down, encouraging people to go home or on to other parties.

The event will not stop altogether though - there will be a much smaller reprise of the fireworks at Big Ben at midnight to tie in with international television coverage.

School children and community groups will prepare two main projects: Tintinnabula (which literally means the ringing of a bell), in which hundreds of lanterns, windchimes and other three dimensional objects will be hung along the banks of the Thames, probably from Vauxhall to Battersea; and the Meridian Clock, a giant structure decorated with the photographs of thousands of Londoners' faces, which will chime every quarter hour.

Mr Geldof sees almost unlimited possibilities. "It's going to be great, this great day for London, that's what we want, that's what Ken wants."

Last year there was considerable public disappointment with some parts of the night, including the Rvier of Fire.

This year Mr Livingstone will expect Geldof's fireworks to capture the imagination of London.