A team from Guinness World Records™ has been on Madeira to assess the firework display. To check the true size of the firework display that heralds the New Year in, on New Year’s Eve inspectors visited the 37 firework points spread out throughout the region. In addition, they made helicopter flights over the area, to become aware of the distances between the different explosion points.

At midnight, the technicians from Guinness World Records™ had the chance to bear witness to the firework display at Funchal. They paid special attention to the synchronism between the firing of the fireworks from the many stations spread out across the city.

The decision was announced at about 1:30 am of 1 January. The Secretary for Tourism and Culture of the Madeira Islands was still celebrating the dawning of the New Year, and the technicians from the Guinness World Records™ company had already gone to meet with the governor to hand over a “temporary certificate” officially granting the title to Madeira. At São Tiago Fort there was a small symbolic ceremony for the handing over of this diploma. The official certificate should arrive in Madeira over the next few days.

This prize is excellent publicity for the Madeira Islands overseas. The Guinness World Records™ is the third most read book in the world, after the Bible and the Koran.

The firework display at the turn of the year is part of the New Year Celebration Programme on Madeira, which is the responsibility of the Regional Secretariat for Tourism and Transports. This year, the company that executed this event was Macedo’s Pirotecnia.