Kix

Just watched it on Dubai 1.

Think they got something wrong, everyone was ready for the Palm at midnight, it started at 00.23.

At least it started i guess.

Goodness knows what those people at Atlantis were thinking for 23 minutes....

I stopped in btw.

Arcadia

The Emirates palace fireworks in Abu Dhabi were always late..never started before 20 past midnight.

busybee2

they started with the burj khalifa then they moved on to the jumeriah beach and the burj and the world islands and palm....

Kix

Yes i saw that, did you hear the guy from the fireworks company/event organisers say that they were having a 10 second countdown to midnight above the Atlantis and the show would open with a flying Eagle though?

Obviously someone said no.

Robajob

I've never seen Dubai One before today, now I know why. The presenters were ****ing awful.

What with all the traffic chaos and the late fireworks, the Palm was definitely not the the place to be tonight....

Just strolled down to JBR beach with the missus and watched the show from there. Back home for a cuppa tea and off to bed in a minute.

NorthernLad

The falcon was supposed to 'fly' down the trunk of The Palm. We could say firework trucks from out balcony, none of them went off. I assume technical problems?

The Palm was mayhem - people walking to Sandance (only a 5km walk) and the traffic no-go period was obviously not applicable to everyone as there were some idiots motoring down what was supposed to be a pedestrian area.

mentalist

Somewhat of a damp squib. Heads should roll. All that money could have been much better spent.

Kix

And from expecting an announcement "Within the hour", the Guinness team has gone surprisingly quiet.

They can't possibly have failed - can they?

Robajob

I can't help thinking that someone from the fireworks display company refused to let the ones down the trunk go off, maybe due to there being thousands of people stuck on it....cue massive barney.....fireworks person in charge refusing to start the display.....eventually fireworks go ahead sans Eagle when organisers realise that company they have employed is not bent enough to endanger peoples lives....

Or I could be completely wrong and it's just the normal low grade incompetence that affects all walks of life here.

Kix

That could be a good call, if you look at the problems with traffic along the trunk as written on Sandance's FB page (5 hours being stuck in a bus), then it could be that the trunk was too busy for such.

I know one of the Project Directors, will get hold of her in a day or so and find out.

NorthernLad

I suspect that is the case. Palm residents were told that from 22:30 until 01:00am walking around The Palm would be 'restricted'. I've never seen so many people wandering around as late last night.


And no surprises here...

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/sanda...os-533065.html

"However, the dedicated bus lane was not made available and previously announced traffic restrictions, including only allowing residential pass and Sandance ticket holders onto the development after certain times, were not enforced."

Patsy Stoned

There was definitely a problem somewhere. A fire broke out to the left of the Jumeriah Beach Hotel about 11.30 although it was quickly brought under control. We were off shore just by the Burj... there were a lot of firework barges that did not ignite. After the finale a lot of smaller, isolated fireworks kept going off by The World. I am guessing that the team were trying to let off the ones that didn't work.
Heads will roll methinks.

Blue Cat

the word fiasco springs to mind

Blue Cat

that little Chalet restaurant burnt down apparently, did they get the record or not? seems no announcement has been made yet.

fezzer

Looks like they did by quite a margin:

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/...-record-54187/