SeaFire delivers more bang and bigger crowds to Surfers Paradise than New Year’s Eve

The runaway success of Surfers Paradise’s annual pyrotechnics showpiece SeaFire — Australia’s only international fireworks competition — has ignited plans for the spectacular to be held over two nights next year.

SEAFIRE in Surfers Paradise is now bigger than the city’s largest New Year’s Eve celebration when it comes to the size of both crowd and its fireworks bang.

The success of the annual pyrotechnics showpiece — Australia’s only international fireworks competition — has ignited plans for the spectacular to be held over two nights next year.

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Surfers Paradise Alliance CEO Mike Winlaw said SeaFire was now the largest single-day public spectacle on the city’s events calendar.

The success of this year’s SeaFire fireworks competition could see the event expanded to run over two nights next year. Picture: James Wills.

“It beats New Year’s Eve in Surfers Paradise for size and for the amount of fireworks detonated,” he said.

“The crowd on Saturday was more than 10,000 people up on New Year’s Eve, which has three shows spread across the night.

“With SeaFire, those three shows are compressed into a short time.”

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A record crowd of 82,387 packed the tourist precinct on Saturday night to see some of the world’s leading pyrotechnic producers set off more than six tonnes of fireworks from three barges anchored off the Surfers shoreline.

“With more people coming each year, we’re going to have to look at what we can do,” Mr Winlaw said.

“There’s a bit of a discussion going on about having two international teams compete on Friday to decide who challenges the reigning titleholders on Saturday.”

Crowds watch the magnificent display over Surfers Paradise on Saturday night during the annual SeaFire international fireworks competition. Picture: James Wills.

Families began pouring into the precinct earlier in the day to enjoy the Village Roadshow superheroes activation and jag a prime position for the after-dark spectacle’s program of three massive nine-minute pyrotechnic productions.

“We had 600m of beach blocked off for sound and there were people 200m either side of that,” Mr Winlaw said.

“That’s 1km of people on the beach.”

The cracker crowd was well above both the 60,000 people organisers expected and the seasonal visitor average.

This year’s spectacle saw reigning SeaFire champions Hunan Qinghai Fireworks Group, from China, trumped by an impressive display from event debutants Platinum Fireworks Inc from the Philippines.

A record crowd of 82,387 poured into Surfers on Saturday night to see some of the world’s leading pyrotechnic producers set off more than six tonnes of fireworks. Picture: James Wills.

While they weren’t competing, Australian team Skylighter FireworX also showed off its prowess during an explosive nine-minute exhibition.

“Winner winner chicken dinner! Team Philippines have taken out the 2018 SeaFire competition at Surfers Paradise! #seafire #seafire2018 #surfersparadise #goldcoast #wearegoldcoast #destinationgoldcoast #teamskylighter,” Skylighter captioned a picture of the competing teams posted on its Instagram page.

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Mr Winlaw said the alliance was keen to capitalise on the rapidly growing popularity of the event, presented in conjunction with Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific.

“We’re talking about expanding and have been learning a bit from the Philippine team while they are in town,” he said.

“Their activation in Manilla Bay (the annual Philippines International Pyromusical Competition, aka the World Pyro Olympics) is bigger — they run it every Friday and Saturday night over four weeks.

“We can’t do that but we might be able to run Friday and Saturday night and bring in another team and see three international teams competing for an even bigger boost this time of year.”

SeaFire has overtaken New Year’s Eve to become the biggest single-day event held in Surfers Paradise each year. Picture: James Wills.

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Mr Winlaw said the alliance had worked hard to ensure its calendar of free events continued to attract more visitors into the precinct, increasing activation days in the precinct from 291 in

2016-17 to 315 in 2017-18.

Mr Winlaw said events including the beachfront markets, the award-winning Sand Safari Arts Festival and LIVE music festival, VIVA Surfers Paradise, NYE, SeaFire, Kids Week and the Australian Street Entertainment Championships helped bring an extra 1.12 million visitors into Surfers in 2016-17.

SeaFire 2018 lights up the night sky over Surfers Paradise. Picture: James Wills.

This year’s SeaFire paid tribute to the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES), with QFES providing pre-show entertainment and vehicle displays along The Esplanade earlier in the day.

Hunan Quintai Fireworks president Leo Liu said it was “a great honour and privilege” to be invited back to SeaFire to try to defend the Chinese team’s 2017 title.

Platinum Fireworks Inc president Joel Sta Ana said his team leveraged its experience in pyro-musicals to its advantage.

“Although we have never competed in SeaFire, we have nine years’ experience rolling out big opening and closing exhibitions,” he said.