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Watch the cringe-inducing moment Manchester gets New Year's Eve wrong

Video: Manchester celebrates New Year's at four minutes past midnight

Kiran Moodley
Thursday 01 January 2015 12:26 GMT
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One of the less complicated aspects of New Year's Eve is the timing: regardless of where you are or who you are with, you know that the most important part of the night is midnight.

Unless you are a tram driver in Manchester.

The northern city's New Year's Eve firework display was delayed for four minutes on Wednesday night because a tram driver pulled into the "fall out" zone where debris from the show could fall.

Video from the evening shows a record crowd of 15,000 people in Piccadilly Gardens counting down to midnight, yet when the moment comes, they are left bemused as there is no "big bang" when the clock strikes twelve.

As the seconds tick by, the emcee of the event says, "Right folks, just a small hitch - we're just waiting for the tram to go out. He's going to be sacked tomorrow that tram driver. Get out of the way of the fireworks, Mr tram!"

He then says he's giving the tram driver ten seconds to move, starting a new countdown. Yet when he gets to zero, the tram has still not moved and the fireworks remain unlit.

Pat Karney, Manchester council's city centre spokesman, tried to argue to the Manchester Evening News that the delay added some extra spice to the evening.

“The tram delay added extra excitement and suspense to the occasion. I'll leave it to the transport authority to check what happened.”

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