Place the glittering New York Times, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and the port of Hong Kong jostle, crowds will gather to usher in 2012 in a blaze of light, sound and music.
In Australia, more than 1.5 million people are expected to mass in the long views of Sydney Harbour to witness a spectacular fireworks which the arch of the Sydney Harbour Bridge as the focal point.
In early afternoon thousands of revelers were already waiting in the heat of summer for the seven tons of explosives that illuminate the sky at midnight in the colorful display that attracts worldwide attention.
"Each year we ensure that our celebrations are bigger and better than the last," Sydney Mayor Clover Moore.
