Brisbane's skyline has exploded in an extravaganza of light and colour after the threat of storm activity retreated for the city's first New Year's Eve fireworks display.
The early 8.30pm fireworks show was just a taste of things to come, according to the man in charge of the pyrotechnics, Skylighter Fireworks Director Max Brunner.
"(The first show) is probably about 40 per cent of the total fireworks, and it's about 60 per cent at midnight," he told AAP.
Crowds had been slowly building through Wednesday ahead of the countdown, with thousands staking their claim at popular vantage points along the Brisbane River.
An estimated 80,000 people are expected to pack the South Bank parklands for the main event at midnight.
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Mr Brunner's company has been in charge of New Year's Eve festivities in Brisbane for six years and continued to set the bar high, he said.
"To come back year after year we need to go back to the drawing board and really work hard to make it more creative, more spectacular and work on new effects."
The Brisbane River was transformed into a stage for the dynamic light show, with three barges housing about 10 tonnes of fireworks.
There will be 30,000 individual pyrotechnic displays by the night's end.
The 2014 countdown boasts unique aquatic pyrotechnics which will shoot from the barges before dipping under the water and into the sky.
The main event will include a reflective soundtrack revisiting the Brisbane Roar's A-League grand final win, US President Barack Obama's G20 lecture and the fierce super cell storm that tore through Brisbane in late November.
"There's more of a feature on the rooftops at midnight, and also a few surprises we've got up our sleeve," Mr Brunner said.
Crowds are enduring a warm and humid evening after the temperature in Brisbane peaked at just below 34C on Wednesday afternoon.
"Unfortunately that humidity should just hang around for the evening," Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Michael Paech said.
But it appeared less likely storm activity would disrupt the celebrations, he said.
"We've just got a couple of small cells to the south west of Brisbane which I'm really not expecting to affect the greater Brisbane area in the next few hours."
