Since NYE 2000, St Aidan’s Longueville has held a New Year’s Eve community festival. The Church arranges a band, snag sizzle and much more. The festival has proved very popular and in the last 17 years, crowd numbers have continued to grow and grow. The Church funds the costs of staging the festival.
2017 New Year’s Eve Festival Cancelled
St Aidan’s Longueville is located on the corner of Christina Street and Arabella Street Longueville. It’s an ideal location to watch the New Year’s Eve Sydney Harbour Fireworks.
As part of the festival, Christina Street Longueville is closed to traffic. Arranging a road closure is not an easy task. An application to close a local road is required by the Lane Cove Council. Organisers must also liaise with the LAC North Shore Command (aka the Chatwood Police Station).
This year, LAC North Shore Command advised St Aidan’s that new security requirements for large crowd gatherings are now in place. The enhanced security requirements were introduced after the European terror incidents. To comply with these requirements, St Aidan’s would need to outlay a significant amount of money to engage security guards and install concrete barriers.
Unfortunately, and with great regret, St Aidan’s has made the hard call to cancel the 2017 community festival.
A Lane Cove Council spokesperson advised:
Council continues to support street parties and has previously seen St Aidan’s New Year’s Eve event as a great local initiative. NSW Police have concerns regarding safety during large gatherings e.g. 5,000 people and as such the Church and Police have had direct discussions about this event and whether it will proceed. We welcome street party applications at any time via www.lanecove.nsw.gov.au/lovewhereyoulive.
2018 New Year’s Eve Festival
St Aidan’s hopes to hold the festival in 2018. One option is to seek sponsorship for the event. If any Lane Cove business would like to sponsor next year’s event please email Senior Minister Craig Potter. The team at St Aidan’s would love to hear from you.
The Church would like to thank both the Lane Cove Council and the LAC North Shore Command for their previous support of the event. St Aidan’s understands the need for increased security measures. The safety of Lane Cove residents is paramount.
Everything is not lost, spectators can still view the fireworks from the Christina Street footpath and other green spaces. Other Longueville streets parallel to Christina Street provide good views (enter from Kenneth Street).
Tips for Watching the Fireworks
ITC’s biggest tip – don’t drive into Longueville. After the fireworks finish, there is always a traffic jam (very few exit streets). Have a meal in Lane Cove or at the Longueville Sporting Club and then walk to where you will be viewing the fireworks.
Manns Point Greenwich is also highly rated as a place to watch the NYE fireworks. You will need to enter Greenwich before the RMS road closures are in effect. These closures are to limit the number of vehicles entering the Greenwich Peninsula. Road Closure details are set out in the box below.
Greenwich Road south of Bay Street and Chisholm Street south of Edwin Street will be closed from 5:30pm on Sunday 31 December and remain closed till 2am on Monday 1 January.
Closure conditions:
5:30pm-6pm: residents and their visitors will be allowed to enter the road closures (with appropriate proof of address)
6pm onwards: no access will be allowed into the road closures for anyone, including residents, with the exception of emergency services.Vehicles will be permitted to exit the road closure 9:00 pm onwards after a safety assessment of all pedestrian and vehicle movements and other potential hazards has been conducted by on site NSW Police officers. This assessment may result in longer wait periods. Vehicles will be allowed to enter the road closure after 2:00am.
If you would like to venture further afield and view the fireworks from a viewing area somewhere else on the harbour, head to the Sydney New Year’s Eve website for a map of all the harbour viewing areas.
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