Kimbolton Fireworks light up London for New Year's Eve

Kimbolton Fireworks is the first British company to produce the display

On New Year's Eve the skies above London will light up courtesy of a Cambridgeshire company.

Kimbolton Fireworks is the first British firm to be chosen to create the annual spectacular which is watched by thousands and broadcast on the BBC.

The company will work with Jack Morton Worldwide, the events specialist which organises the London firework display.

Kimbolton Fireworks is the only company in the country that still produces outdoor fireworks on a large scale.

'Tremendous display'

The New Year's Eve display will be set to music for the first time.

An exclusive soundtrack is being created by BBC Radio 1 DJ Nihal, who will be mixing music live in the build-up to midnight.

Darryl Fleming, Kimbolton Fireworks' display director, explained that the company would be utilising global positioning systems (GPS) to ensure that the display and the music were perfectly synchronised.

DJ Nihal will provide the live music for the London display

The whole event will cost £1.8m to run and is financed by the London Development Agency and the office of the Mayor of London.

Mayor Boris Johnson told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire: "This is one of the great moments in the year when the eyes of the world turn to London and I've no doubt it's going to be a tremendous display.

"I congratulate Kimbolton Fireworks on getting the contract. It's great to see a fantastic British pyrotechnical display being supplied by a British firm."

The Cambridgeshire company has previously created displays for a number of National Trust events, the Henley Regatta, Legoland, Warner Brothers, the Trafalgar 200 celebrations and the handover of Hong Kong to China.