Pics courtesy: Khaleej Times/AFP

Dubai, Jan 1 (Arab News): It was not so sweet a 2016 for many - but in Dubai, partygoers ushered in the New Year in style.

A spectacular fireworks show around the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, had been expected to draw some 650,000 people.

As midnight struck, crowds stood gazing upward - many with smartphones at the ready - as fireworks shot from the sides of the 828-meter skyscraper.

As 2016 drew to a close, revelers around the world bid a weary adieu to a year filled with political surprises, prolonged conflicts and deaths of legendary celebrities.

In Berlin the mood was more somber than celebratory.

“I don’t like the way politics is going,” resident Daniel Brandt was quoted as saying. “Fears are being fanned and people are so angry with each other.”

Some Germans blame Chancellor Angela Merkel for attacks such as the recent rampage in Berlin, where a failed asylum-seeker from Tunisia rammed a truck into a crowded Christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring dozens more.

Sydney sent up a dazzling tribute to 2016’s fallen icons with a New Year’s Eve fireworks display honoring the late singer David Bowie and late actor Gene Wilder, becoming the first major city to see out the turbulent year.

The glittering display over Sydney’s famed harbor and bridge featured Saturn and star-shaped fireworks set to “Space Oddity,” the classic song by Bowie - one of the seemingly endless parade of beloved entertainers who died in 2016.

While 2016 brought challenges across the world, those gathered to watch the fireworks in Dubai instead chose to focus on the positive.

For Ina Dumdum, 33, of Manila, Philippines, 2016 brought a new job in Abu Dhabi and greater economic security.

Wearing a pink pair of do-it-yourself “Happy New Year” rabbit ears on her head, she smiled and said, “2016 was prosperity.”

In Turkey, security measures were heightened in major cities in preparation for the New Year celebrations.

In Istanbul, 17,000 police officers were on duty, some camouflaged as Santa Claus and others as street vendors, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Friday.

Neslihan Dogruol, a restaurant owner in a chic Istanbul neighborhood, said she hopes for peace in 2017 following a year filled with “unrest and death.”

“The year 2016 affected everyone badly,” she said, referring to major attacks that hit Turkey in the past year.