THE Urban Development Corporation (UDC) is to once again stage Fireworks on the Waterfront, a pyrotechnic display that will follow a street jamboree on New Year’s Eve to herald the arrival of 2010.

The corporation was able to secure approximately $6 million from a handful of sponsors to ensure this

year’s event which will be somewhat different from last year’s staging.

According to the UDC, the format of the event has been changed as a “cost containment strategy”. The cost, the corporation said, will be 50 per cent of what it was

last year.

“Beginning at 4:00 pm on Thursday, December 31, the event will comprise a grand street party reminiscent of Jamaica of former years, with music by ProSound Disco and DJ Squeeze. It will also feature a kiddies area for the young and young at heart with simulators, trampoleaper, trampoline and merry-go-round, and vending booths and stalls along Ocean Boulevard on the Kingston waterfront. Highlight of the event will be the fireworks display at midnight,” the UDC said in a release yesterday.

“For those persons wishing to see the fireworks from an elevated level, then the VIP Front Row Party will offer that vantage point from the poolside of the former Oceana Hotel on King Street,” the release added.

Fireworks on the Waterfront was first staged by the UDC in 1999 to usher in the new millennium and was intended to be a one-off event. However, its absence the following year sparked a public outcry.

According to the UDC, “while it is physically located in downtown Kingston, the Fireworks on the Waterfront event has a much wider reach with patrons travelling from other parishes to be a part of the action.”

“The successful staging of Fireworks on the Waterfront each year underscores UDC’s positioning of downtown Kingston as the place for business or pleasure. This fits squarely within the redevelopment plans for downtown Kingston being pursued by the UDC,” the agency said.

Among the sponsors for this year’s event are the Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica Limited, National Commercial Bank, GraceKennedy Limited, Supreme Ventures, Ammar’s Limited, Allied Insurance Brokers, Maritime Towing Company Ltd, Jamaica Freight and Shipping Company Limited and the Kingston and the St Andrew Corporation.