Over the last few years, criticisms of fireworks have grown. The impacts on wildfire and pets, triggering those with post-traumatic stress disorder, and a whole host of environmental concerns make firework shows somewhat controversial. More recently, municipal fire bans as a result of wildfire risk have even led some municipalities to outright prohibit fireworks.
But is there a way to still have the beauty of a light show without the damage? The answer could lie with LED-light-adorned flying robots, a.k.a drone light shows.
We sat down with Anugrah Patel, the founder and CEO of Drone Light Show Canada, to chat about how these light shows work and whether they could be the solution to our growing tension with fireworks.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
First of all, how exactly does a drone light show work?
A client comes to us with an idea of what they want to see in the sky, a theme, and we design the show based on that. Most of our upcoming shows are on Canada Day, so we’ve been getting a lot of requests for maple leaves, moose, and bears. We use an application to create the choreography, then we put the files in a path that the drones understand. The drones fly and make different formations in the sky. Since they use LED lights, they can be in any number of colours.
What types of celebrations do people purchase drone shows for?
We work on shows Canada-wide, from the East Coast to the West Coast to northern communities. This year, we’ve done approximately ten shows. Most of our clients are municipalities and businesses, a lot of hotels. We do some weddings as well. Our summer solstice show in Ottawa with 250 drones was unfortunately postponed because of the weather. For Canada Day, we’ll be in Kamloops, B.C., Langley, B.C., Burlington, Ont., Ancaster, Ont., and Hinton, Alta. It’s so nice to see how these communities are adopting the new, clean way of celebrating.
More municipalities and organizations—most recently, Timmins, Ont., and Science North in Sudbury, Ont.—are opting for drone shows over fireworks. What do you think the appeal is?
The major reason why people are choosing drone shows is pollution. There’s the sound pollution that has impacts on animals, and people are very cautious about the [potential of starting] wildfires.
People are also learning how beautiful these shows are. You can customize everything; the sky is your canvas. It’s a beautiful experience.
You mentioned some of the environmental impacts of fireworks. Are drone shows more climate-friendly?
One hundred per cent. Our goal is zero pollution, clean solution. There is very little pollution from drones. Compared to fireworks, this is clean. There’s no smoke, no debris, no harm to animals or people, and no misfires.
There’s also very little noise. The whole show is designed with music, but you can’t hear it about 30 metres away from the actual show.
Let’s talk about the price. Lots of celebration-goers pool resources to put together a community fireworks display. Could drone shows be an alternative for them?
For big events like Canada Day, the price is very similar to fireworks. For smaller events, drone shows are about ten to fifteen per cent more expensive. Municipalities and companies such as hotels have budgets that can work with this.
Right now, everything is expensive. The licensing and design, and people are still learning the skills. But if you compare it to two years ago, the process is getting better. In the EU, we see the costs of the technology and drones dropping, and more options appearing for clients. We could see this happen in Canada too.
Looking ahead, do you think drone light shows have the potential to replace fireworks?
We have been seeing huge demand across Canada and that is very promising. But I don’t see fireworks being eliminated. There is more risk involved, but it’s a different kind of experience.
When we first started in 2020, there were only two [drone show] companies in Canada. Now, there are lots of companies. As the process with Transport Canada improves (in regards to getting approval to fly the drones), I think we will just continue to grow.
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