Hard at work for the countdown

Hard at work for the countdown
By Sharon See | Posted: 29 December 2010 2034 hrs

SINGAPORE: The party lasts for one night only, but it takes five weeks of hard work to make sure everything goes well.

20,000 wishing spheres, 160 powerful lights and 28 speakers - all in place for the big party on New Year's Eve.

While these spheres look almost haphazardly thrown into the Singapore River, in reality, each sphere is manually anchored to a submerged network of ropes.

A team of workers took a month to do this, translating to about 800 spheres tied to the network each day, one at a time.

Nicholas Ee, Managing Director of MD Daniel Enterprise, said: "New Year's Eve is a kind of challenge for me and with my colleagues to do this kind of work...four people on water, eight to 10 people on land per day...the water section people will pull it to where they want to install."

This year's fireworks boasts the largest number of shells used for New Year's Eve, some 3,000 this year.

They will be set off in the middle of Marina Bay, posing a small challenge to the crew who have to install them on pontoons.

"If you're working on land, anything can be brought to you with a vehicle, any time. But if you're working on water, especially with so many spheres around, there's only specific entry points," said Ronnie Wee, Assistant Operations Manager with Glorious Singapore.

So how will these unsung heroes celebrate New Year's eve, while they're ensuring everything goes well for the party-goers?

"Celebrate by working because it's an important day for us because it's one of the biggest shows in Singapore...satisfaction is after the show, you see that you've done a good job, you have satisfied yourself and your client, so that is what keep us working on a holiday when everyone else is enjoying themselves," said Mr Wee.

Mr Ee agrees. "We have to work until 3am, 4am, then we have to dismantle it to make way for the River Taxis, the stakeholders, to use...Satisfaction when you see the thing done, people are happy with it, can entertain some tourists."

The Countdown Party starts at 5pm on Friday.

-CNA/ac

- wong chee tat :)