Pre-fireworks: Electricity in the Air

Getting ready to head out to the beach, we first make a stop at the New Year's Eve (NYE) disco party (hence the colored lights) atop the Excelsior hotel. Notice everyone is dressed in the traditional NYE white. The main attraction early in the evening was the view, which is what everyone is looking at.




View from the roof top of our hotel. Cruise ships lined up just offshore for a good view of the NYE fireworks, and the people celebrating on the beach. If you look closely, you can see the long slender explosive-carrying barges BETWEEN the cruise ships and shoreline. That's how close the fireworks were to the beach. Talk about feeling the impact.



Early in the evening, a crowd has gathered along Avenue Atlantica, which runs the length of the beach and has been completely closed to traffic for the evening (right side of photo). They are patronizing the many food and drinks booths temporarily set up on the street. There are white tents set up all over the beach, on the left, place holders for the crowd to come.



View toward Leme, at the north end of Copacabana beach. Avenue Atlantica is quite crowded up this way.




Last view from the Excelsior roof top. There is now a HUGE crowd gathered down below. There are usually around 2 million people here on Copacabana beach for New Year's Eve. On the right are people walking up one side of Avenue Atlantica, moving left there is the median, then another stream of people on the other side of Atlantica. The very thick crowd on the upper far left is the crowd on the beach. The green lighted area towards the top right of the pic is one of the bandstands set up for tonight's celebration.




Here is a closer pic of the green lighted area in the previous shot. It is a huge bandstand set up for one of the many bands playing for the crowd on the beach. The bandstand is on the left, a big screen on the right for the people farther back on the beach. The whole crowd was moving to the beat.




Everyone buys white flowers to toss into the ocean on NYE, an offering to the goddess Lemanja, in the hopes that she will make their wish for the coming year come true.


Along the closed Avenue Atlantica, you can buy anything you would want for the evening: celebratory "Feliz Ano Novo" shirts, grilled cheese on a stick, tapioca creeps, and of course, alcohol, in every shape and form. Lots of Skol (the ubiquitous beer brand here), caipirinhas, and flavored blended drinks, as sold at this stand here. Check out the decorations. This is a TEMPORARY stand, just put up for the night, in the middle of the street.
Crowd gathering on the beach, eagerly awaiting the fireworks show, and the beginning of the New Year. You can see a bit of rain on the camera lens. It sprinkled a bit, but no one seemed to mind because it was so warm.


Front row seat, let the fireworks begin!