Mayor Eduardo Paes (PSD) backtracked and decided that Rio de Janeiro will have fireworks on New Year’s Eve. The city hall will perform the show in Copacabana and in other nine points of the city, but there will be no live shows.
There will be 16 minutes of fireworks on the beach in the south of Rio de Janeiro, with 10 ferries spread along the shore and 25 sound towers with music and countdown — before, the idea was to set up three stages there. The neighborhood, however, will suffer access restrictions, as the intention is for the public to spread out.
The other nine points will be: Flamengo (south), Piscinão de Ramos, Ilha do Governador, Igreja da Penha, Parque Madureira (north), Barra da Tijuca, Recreio, Bangu and Praia de Sepetiba (west). Normally, stages are set up in these neighborhoods, but not fireworks.
“What we are announcing today is a simpler version of New Year’s Eve. What we had as a premise is to have fireworks shows that are visible from different parts of the city, because we want a party as democratic as possible and our desire is not to have it great concentration of people in Copacabana”, declared Paes this Thursday (9).
Last Saturday (4), amid the advance of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, the mayor had published on his Twitter that the celebrations were canceled because the state scientific committee would have been against the event. “Since there are divergent opinions between scientific committees, we will always stick with the most restrictive”, he wrote.
According to Paes, the news “provoked a reaction from the governor” Cláudio Castro (PL), who said that was not exactly what the committee had formally decided. They then met on Monday (6), when the mayor promised to present an “intermediate proposal”.
The structure of the New Year’s party is yet to be detailed in a new press conference on December 20, but for now the city has announced a series of restrictions on traffic. Chartered buses, for example, will be prohibited from entering the city from 19:00 on the 30th.
Vehicle access in Copacabana will be closed at 7:00 pm on December 31st, except for residents, guests and workers, who can enter until 10:00 pm presenting proof. Parking on the edge of the region will also be blocked on the 30th.
On the night of the turnaround, the subway will not work 24 hours a day, the regular bus lines will not be reinforced and new stops will not be created, as in other years.
The municipality itself is going to pay for the fireworks display in the ten locations in the city, as the city hall was unable to get sponsorship for the event due to the lack of definition of the festivities. In addition to the threat of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, Rio de Janeiro is currently experiencing an explosion of flu cases.
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