A CIRENCESTER businessman had extra reason to celebrate on New Year’s Eve after entering the Guinness Book of Records for staging the world’s largest firework display.

Simon Tapping, managing director of events organisation IMG Artists, flew out to Dubai to ensure that the fireworks went off with a bang.

He told the Standard: “It’s a huge relief apart from anything else. Obviously you want everything to go off alright but until it’s happened, you never know what might happen.”

Despite travelling over 3,000 miles to see in 2014, Simon, who is also a trustee of New Brewery Arts, was forced to view the firework show from inside an outside broadcasting unit to oversee the filming of the six minute display.

“I took my family out there and they said it was fantastic. It was the most impressive firework display that the world has ever seen. It was great. The noise, the lights, the colour, the energy – it was simply amazing,” he said.

Dubai’s New Year celebrations featured more than 450,000 fireworks that were launched from around 400 different locations and illuminated some of the country’s most iconic landmarks including the Islands of the World and the Palm.

Watch highlights of the record-breaking firework display below.