Maitland could reclaim its midnight fireworks show to help count in 2016.
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The stunning 9pm fireworks lit up the faces of people gathered along the Hunter River on Wednesday and enthused the mayor of Maitland, Cr Peter Blackmore.
“That [idea] will be something put to council,” he said.
The midnight show was dropped 11 votes to two last year but council left the door open for a possible return.
“It was mentioned then that we would review it,” Cr Blackmore said.
The mayor and his wife Robyn enjoyed the show and he was impressed with people’s behaviour on Wednesday night.
“From what I saw people were very well behaved,” he said.
“I’m probably an old romantic but when I hear kids go ‘aw, look at that’, I thought it was fantastic.
“People are always going to say ‘I wish they had the midnight fireworks’.”
Some residents turned to social media on Wednesday to express their disappointment Maitland didn’t host a midnight display.
Cr Philip Penfold had voted for the midnight fireworks with his wife Cr Nicole Penfold and he and wasn’t surprised people were disappointed the midnight sky stayed dark.
“I had a lot of comments questioning me online as to why they weren’t on,” he said. “I think it came as a surprise to a lot of people.
“Obviously I would welcome back the midnight fireworks.”
Poor behaviour has marred past celebrations which triggered a clampdown on alcohol consumption on Wednesday night.
People were allowed to consume alcohol on the riverbank until only 9.30pm this year instead of midnight.
“I didn’t agree that anti-social behaviour was a huge risk,” Cr Penfold said.
“You can’t change the time that one year ends and the next starts – that’s midnight.”
When council voted down the midnight fireworks Cr Penfold made fruitless enquiries about setting off fireworks from the Showground for people to watch from a distance at places like Stockade Hill Park or their backyards.
“What I had explored was a closed location, just a place for the fireworks to be shot from, not for people to attend,” he said.
“There are people from a long way away in their backyards watching those [riverbank fireworks] you can’t just count the number of people there [in Maitland].”
