Thousands flock to Lake Burley Griffin as Skyfire returns with a bang

Jasper and Lorn Venter, who moved to Canberra last year, camped out by the waterside with their two young daughters to watch the dazzling 18-minute long fireworks display.

"It's a great evening to bring the family and have a look at the best of what Canberra's got to offer," Mr Venter said.

Some attendees travelled from across the country to see the show, which featured more than 14,000 fireworks effects.

That was the case for Forbes Mailler and Jeffery Yang, who travelled from Sydney and Melbourne, respectively, to reunite with friends they went to university with in Canberra for the night.

Mr Mailler, who attended the show growing up in the territory, said the Skyfire was an "institution".

"It's a childhood memory, you know. So we wanted to go back and relive it after it was cancelled many years in a row," he said.

It's been five year's since the last Skyfire was held in 2019. The 2020 event was cancelled just a day before the fireworks were set to go off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Yang said that coming to Saturday's event felt like closure after years of lockdowns and social distancing - a way of saying "yeah, life is back, back and normal again".

"COVID's finally gone, we can actually go and socialise and go outside and see each other and do all the things we thought we'd never do again," he said.

The two agreed that having thousands of people come together to celebrate a firework show felt quintessentially Canberra.

"It's one of those things where like, if you were in any other city, honestly, it wouldn't be much. It would be fireworks on the lake. But because it's Canberra, you know, the whole city gets together," Mr Yang said.

Indeed, others said that coming to Skyfire felt like a right of passage for any Canberran.

Despite living in the territory for 23 years, Saturday was the first time that EJ Manlulu and her mum, Ann, made it to the event.

EJ, 23, said that now they'll finally feel like they can call themselves "legit Canberrans".

"It's exciting to see all these people, all these Canberrans, and like getting together just to witness this spectacular fire," EJ said.

The fireworks kicked off at 8.30pm, and launched from 11 firing positions across the lake.

For Ann Manlulu, watching fireworks is always an emotional time, as it reminds her of her late mother.

"It was during that time, New Year's Eve, that we were all sitting on the terrace and we were just looking at the beautify of the fireworks and then the beauty of her like passing over," Ann said.

"So every time I see fireworks, actually I do get teary."

The event, organised by organised by AmplifyCBR, owner of the MIX 106.3 and Hit 104.7 radio stations, was made possible thanks to sponsors' contributions and the ACT government.