In some places, drones replacing or supplementing fireworks
Courtesy of Sky Elements Drones
Sky Elements Drones of Dallas, Texas, offers a fireworks-free alternative to Fourth of July displays.
Courtesy of Star Flight Drone Shows
Star Flight Drone Shows include up to 75 drones that perform drone light displays across the United States. They are increasingly popular during July 4 celebrations in communities.
Courtesy of Sky Elements
Sky Elements, a Dallas-based company, will host 50 drone shows over the Fourth of July holiday. The company has performed three drone shows at Pittsburgh Pirates games.
Fireworks displays are a staple for Fourth of July celebrations, but more places are switching to a less flammable alternative: drones.
Across the country – especially the hot and dry West – fireworks shows are being replaced, or supplemented, by large swarms of small drones with colorful lights.
The benefits: the drones reduce wildfire risk, pollution, and loud noises that frighten veterans with PTSD and pets.
Dallas, Texas-based Sky Elements, which has performed three drone shows at Pittsburgh Pirates games over the past two years, is having its busiest season yet. The company will perform 50 shows across the country during the July 4 holiday.
“It’s a great alternative for communities with fire danger, but also our shows are compatible with communities that are ready for change. We can tell a story with drones in a way that fireworks can’t,” said Rick Boss, president of Sky Elements. “It’s so unique and so cool.”
July 4 is typically one of the busiest days of the year for human-caused fires. National Fire Protection Association statistics show fireworks start more than 18,500 fires per year and cause an average of $43 million in direct property damage.
With especially dry conditions across Pennsylvania in 2023, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is encouraging Pennsylvanians to follow guidance from experts on fireworks and be mindful of local, county and statewide guidance on burning.
“We have seen consistent elevated risks for wildfires this year, forcing our volunteer and wildlands firefighters to suppress an unprecedented number of blazes this year,” DCNR Secretary Cindy Dunn said. “With that in mind, we ask that the public take all necessary precautions to protect the commonwealth’s lands for the upcoming holiday as we continue to see dry conditions that make fireworks and other fire risks more likely to create wildfires.”
There already have been 1,400 wildfires reported statewide so far in 2023, compared to 1,036 in all of 2022, due to dry conditions.
Chris Hopkins, president and owner of of Slatington, Pa.-based Star Flight Drone Shows, said he believes drones are “the next big thing” in the evolution of fireworks-styled shows.
“It’s not going to replace fireworks, and I don’t want them to replace fireworks, but they can co-exist,” said Hopkins.
Indeed, while many communities are still sticking with traditional fireworks, more communities are adding drone shows.
Typically, drone shows last about 10 minutes. Drones can fly in the shape of the Statue of Liberty, the American flag, the Liberty Bell, and American soldiers.
Most of Sky Elements shows – which account for about half of the drones shows in the U.S. – include 200 to 500 drones, and Boss said designers spend as many as 70 hours planning a 10-minute show (shows are brief due to limited battery life). The drones are now within 1 cm where they’re supposed to be in the sky.
In fact, a Sky Elements show outside of Dallas over the July 4 weekend is on track to break the Guinness record for longest sentence by a drone (Happy Fourth of July), with 1,002 drones expected to fly in formation.
Drones are a small part of the industry, and they lack a “multisensory experience” – the gunpowder smell and explosive noise – but they’re beautiful.
Hopkins, who spent several years collaborating music with fireworks as owner of Celebration Fireworks Inc., marvels at the art and science that go into performing a Fourth of July drone show. He’s excited about how the drones interact with music.
“With fireworks, it was ‘How do I amplify light and sound, and match the emotion that a song is trying to evoke?’ That was fun, and I miss it. But now that we’re doing drone shows, we create a sound track that goes along with what people are seeing in the air. We can play, ‘America the Beautiful,’ and we have purple mountains in the sky. That’s an advantage over fireworks. I can create beautiful things with drones, I can throw literal mountains into the sky, and it’s incredible.”