WILMINGTON — Downtown’s annual fall festival is bringing a different sky show to audiences along the Riverwalk this year and it won’t include loud booms and blasts of traditional fireworks.
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Instead, images of various colors will morph and flow above Cape Fear River this October, created by a drone light show. Anywhere from 20 to 25 designs will be showcased by a five-person team from Open Sky Productions operating 100 drones to create the configurations. They will include Riverfest officials inputting seven suggestions of imagery indicative of the region.
“So you’ll see a makeshift of the U.S.S. North Carolina,” Riverfest President Rod Bell said. “We are going to have a pink ribbon since it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month — things that are important to people and close to Wilmington.”
Music will accompany the show, as provided by Open Sky, which secures the rights. Bell said details on how it will be executed — whether it includes speakers set up along the Riverwalk or listeners linking headphones via Bluetooth — are being hashed out still.
The decision to make the change away from fireworks was twofold, according to Bell.
“The budget piece was a determining factor,” he said, “and we wanted to do something different.”
Fireworks cost Riverfest upward of $25,000 and the drone light show saves the organization roughly $9,000.
Bell said it budgeted $16,500 for the drone show and added the rental fee to rent the barge along the Cape Fear River, where teams go to shoot off fireworks, have increased lately as well. The Riverfest hasn’t had fireworks the last few years and has endured cancellations due to Covid-19, as well as postponements because of weather events for a few years.
The drones will be operated from Battleship Park at the U.S.S. North Carolina.
“They’ll go straight up and be symmetrical to the Riverwalk,” Bell said.
Viewers will be best situated to watch from the Riverwalk, particularly between Market Street to the Hotel Ballast at the foot of Grace and Water streets. The drones are visible from miles away but have the best vantage point from a quarter-mile, according to Open Sky.
The company was founded in 2021 and has done close to 300 shows in its infancy, including celebrity charity events and, most recently, Stadium of Fire in Salt Lake City. It also collaborated with projects on YouTube for the Super Bowl.
“Collectively, our founders have spent over 30 years leading and growing companies in the events, entertainment, and technology industries,” spokesperson Brittany Jones wrote in an email to Port City Daily Wednesday.
Jones said the business model has seen “significant growth” in the last two years, due to growing needs in various sectors, including environmental and sensory-friendly entertainment.
Drones don’t impact air quality like fireworks plumes can do with fine particles PM2 in the smoke left behind. The sounds also can have adverse effects on some pets, veterans suffering from PTSD or neurodivergent people experiencing anxiety or stress due to sensory overload.
Bell said the switch to the drone show has been 85% well-received.
“People that don’t want to be around the loud banging have said, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you,’ but on the opposite side, many have said, ‘Nothing replaces fireworks,'” he said. “But if you look at the trend, a lot of people, a lot of festivals, are going away from fireworks and doing drone shows.”
Fourth of July celebrations last month nationwide had many cities going with drone shows, such as in L.A. where wildfires threaten the landscape. St. Louis, Antonio, Nashville and Kansas City also have hosted the light shows, some in addition to fireworks.
It takes the Open Sky team anywhere from 20 to 80 hours to program the 12-inch-by-12-inch drones to fly to their own set of coordinates in the sky.
“Our pilots have all passed the FAA Part 107 remote pilot exam, and hold a current UAS remote pilot’s license,” Jones said.
The show during Riverfest will last up to 13 minutes; no boats will be allowed in the immediate vicinity of the drones fly zone above the Cape Fear River.
It’s the first time the company has put on a show in the Tar Heel State; however, North Carolina is not immune to the creative output. Drone lights shows have been featured in Apex, Kernersville and Jacksonville.
Jones said the technology is changing daily in its advancement, citing PyroDrones is a new fresh upgrade that Open Sky is also looking into.
“They allow the beauty of both fireworks and drones,” Jones explained. “We are also on the forefront of testing new batteries to allow for a longer show length.”
Riverfest will be held Oct. 5-6, with the drone light show taking place at 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 5. Also returning this year will be the BMX bike shows held both Saturday and Sunday, with other events including live local music, an antique and classic car display, street fair and kids zone.
Learn more about the festival here.
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