Fine weather and one of the most experienced acts in the New Year's Eve entertainment game are set to make Hawke's Bay's biggest party go off with perhaps a bigger bang than ever tonight.
Among the line-up for the Sound Shell and Marine Parade celebrations in Napier is the Big Bang Band, headed by veteran Wellington muso Rodger Fox, who this year celebrated 40 years in big bands.
He cannot remember the last time he saw in a New Year anywhere other than on stage.
"New Year's Eve starts for us about one o'clock. That's what the band will be looking forward to. Come five past 12, start packing up all the gear, and then we can start," he said yesterday.
It will be his third New Year's Eve show in Napier in the 14 years since the parade celebrations were revived for the millennium - the arrival of the year 2000.