London’s New Year’s Eve Fireworks is one of the most widely-watched live celebrations each year, uniting tens of thousands along the Thames and millions more via broadcast. It combines pyrotechnics, lighting, animation and music into a single shared moment at midnight.
For the 2024/25 celebrations, the show carried a message of hope as the city welcomed in 2025. ON THE SLY worked with lead creative agency Identity as music directors and soundtrack producers alongside Kojo Samuel, returning for our sixth consecutive year on the project.
Music and sound design were central to the show’s narrative, providing the foundation for how each part of the evening connected. Once the creative direction and theme were agreed, the soundtrack was developed to reflect both the emotional thread of the story and the celebratory energy of New Year’s Eve.
This edition featured the first use of hologauze animations in the London show, bringing projections of British icons and memorable moments into the firework experience.
Working closely with creative, technical and broadcast teams, ON THE SLY delivered a soundtrack that held together music, voice content and the larger visual elements of the show. The result was a live, broadcast spectacle that marked the transition from one year to the next through a shared narrative experience.
The display looked back at 2024, including the Olympics, Paralympics and 80th anniversary of D-Day, and sent a message of unity and hope from London to the world for 2025 with a unique one-off collaboration with Paddington Bear.
The final show featured the biggest-ever lighting, animation and fireworks display. With over 12,000 fireworks, and 420 lights, and for those watching at home on BBC One, a world-first use of hologauze animations of British icons and memorable events, all set to our soundtrack.
ON THE SLY has delivered music direction and soundtrack production for multiple editions of London’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, helping shape one of the world’s most widely watched annual live events.
This project forms part of ON THE SLY’s work creating soundtracks for fireworks and drone shows around the world.
CREDITS
Agency: Identity
Broadcast: BBC One
Musical directors: ON THE SLY Audio Production & Kojo Samuel
Creative director for Identity: Dan Colborne
Project director for Identity: Jamie Beeston
Pyrotechnics: Titanium Fireworks Ltd
Lighting: Tim Routledge
Lighting Rigging: LCR
Hologauze: Pixel Artwork
Networks / Comms: Delta Live & Pylon One Ltd
Lighting Programmer / Associate: Morgan Evans
Technical Show Production: Nik Jennings
Client: Mayor Of London’s Office / Greater London Authority
BROADCAST
Worldwide
