Final day of 2020 gave us plenty to celebrate and plenty to be excited about for the year ahead

DESPITE the horrific year that was 2020, there was plenty of good to come in its final chapter, December 31

• New Year’s Eve at Darwin Waterfront one of the biggest celebrations in the country

DESPITE the horrific year that was 2020, there was plenty of good to come in its final chapter, December 31.

Many said it was the biggest ever in the Territory with 10,000 officially attending the Darwin Waterfront event, which would have been one of the biggest in the country.

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Plenty came to Darwin from far and wide, from rural NT and interstate to embrace the freedoms the Territory and ring in the New Year the most normal way possible.

It showed those who came that the Territory isn’t just for the dry season and there is plenty to do during the Wet.

Darwin NYE fireworks (above): Vision by Che Chorley

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The silver lining of the pandemic has been the allure of the Territory’s freedoms which have brought people who ordinarily wouldn’t have had the NT on their bucket list to come up here and give it a go and it has returned in spades.

After a disastrous spell to the economy earlier this year, businesses are seeing money fly into their tills this wet season, akin to how the dry season usually runs.

Positive reports came from New Year’s acts Sheppard and Tones and I who join a host of artists who have loved performing in the NT this year and hopefully have it on their list of favourite places to perform, such has been our hospitality.

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Hopefully those who came here remember the good times they had and already have Darwin pencilled into their New Year’s Eve plans for 2021.