WORKERS will today begin assembling a fireworks display to see in the New Year.

About 1.5 tonnes of pyrotechnics will go up in smoke during a 15-minute display in Newcastle on New Year's Eve.

Firework company Walk the Plank, which organised displays at Sir Paul McCartney's wedding and this year's European football championships in Portugal, is making its fifth consecutive visit to Newcastle.

A team of 15 will spend two days rigging the show in the quadrangle of Newcastle Civic Centre and a grassed area in front of the Northumbria University building.

The fireworks will be launched, to music, at 5.30pm and there will be an aerial laser show.

The public can gather on the grassed area to the front of the Civic Centre to view the display and enjoy a programme of entertainment while they wait.

The display will follow a programme of free street entertainment, from 11am to 4pm, at Grey's Monument, Northumberland Street and the Haymarket.