New Year's Eve in Copacabana
The fireworks display in Rio de Janeiro to celebrate New Year's Eve is one of the largest in the world, lasting 15 to 20 minutes. It is estimated that 2 million people go to Copacabana Beach to see the spectacle. The festival also includes a concert that extends throughout the night. The celebration has become one of the biggest tourist attractions of Rio de Janeiro, attracting visitors from all over Brazil as well as from different parts of the world, and the city hotels generally stay fully booked.
History
New Year's Eve has been celebrated on Copacabana beach since the 1950s when cults of African origin such as Candomblé and Umbanda gathered in small groups dressed in white for ritual celebrations. The first firework display occurred in 1976, sponsored by a hotel on the waterfront and this has been repeated ever since. In the 1990s the city saw it a great opportunity to move around the city - organizing and expanding the event.
An assessment made during the New Year's Eve 1992 highlighted the risks associated with the dispersal of increasing crowd numbers on Copacabana beach after the fireworks display and as from the 1993/94 event concerts have been held on the beach to retain the public.
The result was a success with egress spaced out over a period of 2 hours without the previous turmoil although critics claimed that it denied the spirit of the New Year's tradition of a religious festival with fireworks by the sea. The following year Rod Stewart beat attendance records. Finally, the Tribute to Tom Jobim - with Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque, Paulinho da Viola... - consolidated the shows at the Copacabana Réveillon. There was a need to transform the fireworks display in a show of the same quality. The fireworks display was created by entrepreneurs Ricardo Amaral and Mariu's. From the previous 8–10 minutes the time was extended to 20 minutes and the quality and diversity of the fireworks was improved. A technical problem in fireworks 2000 required the use of ferries from New Year's Eve 2001/02. New Year's Eve began to compete with the Carnival, since 1992 it has been a tourist attraction in its own right