The tradition of Madeira Island Fireworks dates back to the seventeenth century.
The New Year’s Eve was marked by bonfires that were lit, illuminating and filling with colour and brightness Madeiran homes.
Later in the eighteenth century, the English community living on the island introduced the launch of the rocket to mark the beginning of the New Year.
A century later, the banker Madeiran João José Rodrigues Leitão chose to recreate this tradition and since then, the wealthy families of the island began to compete with each other in the launch of rockets, thus promoting a spectacle of firework that was spreading to the higher areas of the city.
At the time, the pyrotechnics served to extend, through the night, the celebrations in the ballrooms.
Currently, the New Year’s Eve firework show, takes approximately eight minutes, and is spread over more than 30 burning fire stations located in the amphitheatre of Funchal, on the waterfront and down town area.
Madeira holds the Guinness World Record for the Largest Pyrotechnic Performance in the world. This record was achieved in 2006 and was beaten in 2010. Thus the New Year’s Eve is the largest tourist attraction in the region, with a hotel occupancy of around 90% -95%, tangentially to 100% in many units.