Kiama will all but certainly not be holding its iconic fireworks show on New Year’s Eve with Council set to make the cancellation official at Tuesday’s monthly meeting.

Councillors will vote on a recommendation from director of strategies and communities Ed Paterson to call the Sky Show off after failing to come up with an alternative revenue stream to foot the bill.

The fireworks display was set to cost Council more than $90,000 to run and after the 2025-26 budget was passed in June without money allocated to the event, Destination Kiama, Mayor Cameron McDonald and Kiama Business Network have tried to come up with a solution.

A call was placed for external sponsors to come forward, KBN offered to donate $10,000 to the cause to match contributions from local businesses and Council also conducted a survey to see if NYE revellers would be prepared to pay if it became a ticketed event or chip in with a gold coin donation.

Several KBN members pledged to provide between $3500 and $7000 in total funds towards the event.

The combined tally from local businesses and KBN was approximately $35,500, the shortfall of around $55,000 means that Council is unable to go ahead with the event, particularly due to the fact it is operating under a NSW Government-imposed Performance Improvement Order to get its finances in order.

“Ticketing, VIP experiences, and scaled-down programming were examined, but essential safety requirements mean costs cannot be reduced below $60,000,” Paterson wrote in his report to Council.

“Economic analysis indicates minimal measurable benefit to the local economy.

“It is noted that the cancellation of the 2025 NYE Sky Show is only for one year and can be run again as Council finances improve.

“Given the feedback received from the community, both via the community survey and on social media, it appears that while there is a level of support for the event there is a general understanding that Council should ‘live within its means’ and a desire for ratepayer funds to be expended on other critical projects.”

The report highlighted that the economic impact of the NYE Sky Show was open to interpretation.

According to Spendmapp data, $1.76 million was spent in the Kiama LGA on 31 December last year.

That translates to an estimated increase over an average summer weekend by 21–36% across key categories.

In the Kiama township, $231,270 was spent last New Year’s Eve in the dining and Entertainment category from 6pm to midnight.

This was 7% higher than Saturday 21 December but the Saturday of 4 January when no event was held was 41% higher and the spend for the Changing Tides Festival on Saturday 14 December was 22% higher.

Scaling down the event to a smaller fireworks display was ruled out because “while entertainment programming could be reduced, it plays a significant part in crowd management and community safety by staggering arrival and departure times so that 15,000–20,000 people don’t all arrive or leave at once”.

Of the $90,000 cost to hold the show (not taking into account staff costs), only $35,000 is associated with the actual fireworks and associated entertainment.

All other costs are associated with mandatory safety and amenity measures.