New Year Lights for World's Tallest Building in Dubai

Explosions of color shot out of the world's tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, illuminating the Gulf city state's sky as the huge expatriate and tourist hub celebrated the New Year.

Fireworks engulfed the 828-meter (2,716-foot) tower, synchronized and choreographed to a live performance by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

Hours before the clock struck 00:00 am in Dubai, massive crowds had gathered in the area surrounding the tower watching a spectacular light show that accompanied the Czech band's classical hits.

Fireworks also flashed across several other parts of Dubai and the capital Abu Dhabi.

At the tower, Rami, a Jordanian resident told Agence France Presse: "This is a very special event. We came to see it after all we had heard about it."

A window table for the New Year event on the 122nd floor of the building at Atmosphere -- a restaurant 422 meters (1,350 feet) up in Burj Khalifa -- cost 16,000 dirhams (4,300 dollars) per person.

Over the past few years, Dubai has been vying to become a permanent fixture on the world map of New Year celebrations, displaying spectacular shows since the opening of Burj Khalifa in 2010.

Emaar had spent 1.5 billion dollars on the tower, named after United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan who came to the aid of Dubai in 2009, when it was hit by the global financial crisis in 2009.

The UAE is home to around 8.2 million people, the majority of them expatriates.