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01
Jan 2024
Gallery: Sensational fireworks display sees New Year arrive with a bang in Ripon
The New Year arrived with a huge bang as Ripon ushered in 2024 in spectacular fashion last night with a fireworks display, the like of which has never been seen before in the city centre.
For 10 minutes from the stroke of midnight on the Ripon Cathedral clock, revellers who had earlier danced to the Caribbean beat of the Jamsalana Steel Band were treated to an exhibition of precision pyrotechnics.
A pulsating palette of colours burst upon the night sky in wave after wave of controlled explosion and at its conclusion a gathering of more than 2,000 people on Market Square spontaneously applauded.
Ripon City Council leader Andrew Williams, who put £1,000 of his North Yorkshire Council locality budget towards the cost of the display, told the Stray Ferret:
He added:
The number of people on Market Square grew throughout the evening and by midnight, more than 2,000 were present to see the fireworks
Last night's New Year's Eve event, paid for from the parish precept, has been staged over decades by the city council and is firmly established on the authority's annual calendar.
Before Jamsalana (pictured below) struck up, there was the ever-present reminder for Ripon residents and visitors of the city's rich heritage, when Wayne Cobbett, a member of the hornblower team, set the watch with blasts at the four corners of the obelisk.
The instrument that he uses, is the 1996 horn, donated to the city to celebrate the 1100th anniversary since Alfred the Great, the first Anglo-Saxon King of England, gave a ceremonial horn to the people of Ripon in thanks for the courage they showed in fighting off a Viking incursion in 886 AD.
The Mayor of Ripon Councillor Sid Hawke, who was celebrating his birthday, was present for the setting of the watch and later, in another city tradition, he returned to Market Square with Mayoress Linda Hawke after leading a candle-lit procession from the cathedral, attended by clergy and members of the congregation.
The procession included the Dean of Ripon the Very Revd John Dobson, Canons Michael Gisbourne, Matthew Pollard and the Bishop of Ripon, the Rt Revd Anna Eltringham, who blessed the crowd from the town hall balcony.
Main image: The spectacular fireworks display provided the finale to an evening of celebration on Market Square
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