People from across Orange and further afield gathered at Wade Park to ring in the new year with a laser light show on Thursday.
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Ticket numbers for Light Up Orange were reduced to 1800 at the last minute for the sold-out New Years Eve event.
Among the families who relaxed on camp chairs and picnic blankets was the Clancy family from Flinders south of Wollongong.
The family incorporated a visit to Orange as part of an 18-day road trip through the Central West.
Father, Aaron Clancy said they have already visited Mount Victoria, Bathurst and now Orange.
"We usually just hire a house by the beach and this is the first year we thought we would do a road trip," Mr Clancy said.
Mother, Christine Clancy said the family will also visit Mudgee, Wellington, Dubbo and the Hunter Valley.
"We are heading to Dubbo for the zoo and Orange is amazing," Mrs Clancy said.
"We thought we would get out of Canberra, we like the wine region here," Chole Bird said.
There were also plenty of people from within the Orange community and its surrounds who travelled to take in the in the laser light show by Laservision.
Among them was Fenella Beer who enjoyed the event with her friends.
Sisters Millicen Klaare-Smith and Paityn Klaare-Smith. were among the Dyiraamalang Dance Group who performed the welcome dance.
They also recently performed in Dance Rites, a national dance event that usually sees Aboriginal dancers come from across Australia to perform at the Sydney Opera House, but this year the event was streamed online due to the pandemic.
Sayuri Fernando brought her young son Joshua and was joined by family friend Joelin Fernando and said in previous years they attended the fire works at Norther Orange.
"It's a family friendly event," she said.
Laservision CEO Shannon Brooks said the company, which is also running a New Years Eve event in Abu Dhabi in the Middle East and also has offices in Dubai and Hong Kong was contacted by event organiser Craig McMahon for the Orange event.
"It's the first time we've done an event of this [magnitude] in Orange," Mr Brooks said.
"Craig reached out to us about collaborating with us to do something special for Orange.
"These guys wanted to do something special."
Mr Brooks said there was a lot involved in organising the 15-minute the show, including transporting 19-tonnes of equipment and getting licensing with Civil Aviation and Orange Airport.
"It's quite a logistical effort," Mr Brooks said.
"There's a lot of collaboration, local dance artists as well as local musicians.
"It's good to see particularly with what's happening in Sydney for COVID ... [Orange] Council have been very [supportive] with everything that's happening."
Light Up Orange committee member Holly Manning was among those who manned the entry where there were QR codes to be scanned, temperature checking as well as the checking of tickets.
Mrs Manning said the venue could hold 6000 people in non-coronavirus times but on Thursday afternoon the event sold out at 1800.
"Initially it was 4000, when when COVID hit it went to 3000 and we just felt we wanted to manage a smaller number," Mrs Manning said.
"The rule is people can sit in their groups but they are two metres from other groups.
"It's good to see so many people in the community coming together.
"Everybody is excited, children are excited and we are grateful we can put something like this together to end such as challenging year."
Proceeds from the night will go to Give Me 5 For Kids to purchase equipment for the children's ward at Orange Hospital.
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