The last several weeks have provided examples of what's possible when you replace traditional fireworks displays with color LED-illuminated aerial drone shows. Let's start with Vivid Sydney's "Written in the Stars" drone show, which used 1,260 drones to put on an 11 minute show on 28 May 2023:
The next aerial spectacular was presented as part of Shenzhen's Boat Festival, featuring some 1,400-1,500 drones to execute the precision flying needed to produce the following visual effect that lasts a little over half a minute:
The final video is about three-and-a-half minutes long and presents a performance that captured a Guinness World Record for "longest aerial sentence", which was formed by 1,002 multirotor drones at Dallas-Fort Worth's Fourth of July celebration.
Drone shows have come a long way in a short period of time. More than anything else, these videos show their future potential because after seeing them, you want to see both more and better displays.