On Monday night, councillors gave the green light for Colab Creative to host the Light The Lake event at Lake Albert on New Year's Eve.

The event will be the first time Wagga has celebrated New Year's Eve with a fireworks display in three years, after the 2019 display was cancelled due to bushfires and the 2020 event was scaled back due to COVID-19.

Colab Creative describe the proposal as a "community, family friendly event" which will include a main event area at Apex Park with acoustic entertainment, food stalls, a public bar and a fireworks display at 9.30pm.

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A secondary event will be held at Bosley Memorial Park with food stalls and a ticketed DJ event with a bar and there will also be four other sites around the lake featuring buskers and food vendors.

The cost of the event is estimated at $111,000, of which council will sponsor $54,000 while Colab Creative will look to secure sponsors to make up the rest.

Oliver Hoffmann, one of the founders of Colab Creative, said he is anticipating a big turnout for the event.

"I'm extremely keen and we think it's going to be a larger event because it's going to be the first big event post-COVID for Wagga," Mr Hoffmann said.

"I think after the last couple of years everyone is going to be pretty keen to get out there and celebrate."

Wagga councillor Dan Hayes congratulated the organisers for taking the event on and said it would be good to see the event return to Lake Albert.

"Having the event at the lake is good as it allows the revellers to kick on downtown rather than try to compete against the pubs," Cr Hayes said.

"It's good to have new people organising it, it brings new ideas, new approaches and prevents it from going stale."

Cr Hayes also enquired about the possibility of setting up bike racks at the lake so revellers could lock their bicycles securely if they choose to ride to and from the event.

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