ABC Countdown – New Year’s Eve Concert
This year I had the epic surprise of winning tickets to the ABC New Year’s Eve Countdown Concert 2017 at the Sydney Opera House!! Typically I wouldn’t bother going into the city to view the fireworks because there are so many people. However, I think an exception needs to be made for this!
For those that don’t know, Countdown used to be an incredibly popular Music TV show that ran from 1974 to 1984. This is well before I was even born, however thanks to re-runs and some special shows similar to the NYE concert I am lucky enough to know of this fantastic show. Many artists careers were started because of the show and anyone touring internationally would make it a priority to be on the show.
After a quick bite in the city and short walk around we arrived at the Sydney Opera House by about 6.30pm.
The first priority was to get a glass of champagne, after all, it is new years eve! My partner and I enjoyed the view for a while whilst waiting eagerly for the show to begin! While waiting we were able to watch Charlie Pickering and Jeremy Fernandez film intro videos which were rather interesting.
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Let the Show Begin!
Finally, at 8.30 pm the show began. Unfortunately, we were stuck with a rather lame kids show for the 9 pm family fireworks. At least the ‘auditions’ for play school was funny! The 9 pm fireworks were amazing! They were the perfect pre-show for the midnight fireworks.
9.30pm was when the real magic began, as we realised that none other then Jimmy Barnes had stepped out on stage to open the show!! This was my first time seeing him live and he was awesome. There was such passion in his performance throughout the whole show. But he wasn’t the only brilliant act! Marcia Hines’s voice was amazing! And Colin Hay from Men at Work and the lady who played flute and saxophone were also brilliant. You could tell they were having a great time on stage!
Unfortunately there was one act that really dragged down the concert. Montaigne who performed a cover of a David Bowie song and completely butchered it. She was trying way too hard with her dance moves and worst of all mumbled through most verses. I’m wondering if she just didn’t bother to learn the song at all because the only time you could understand her was when she sang the chorus. By the time she started the second song, the crowd had grown tired of her performance and the energy was dropping fast. Luckily the follow-up act livened up the crowd again.
As the night moved on and fantastic music played with some awful dancing by yours truly it was time for the fireworks! Located at the front of the Sydney Opera House we were in prime position for midnight fireworks.
All of the lights!
Starting from the bridge we were soon surrounded by beautiful colours. My favourite part of the show would definitely have to be the gold fountain flowing from the harbour bridge (skip to 10:27 in the YouTube video below).
The show was amazing. I would highly recommend keeping an eye out next year for the chance to enter the competition and attend this amazing experience at the 2018 New Year’s Eve Countdown Concert.
