Shanghai has taken a step into the future to introduce 2020 with a spectacular drone show. We know fireworks have long been a tradition around the world to welcome the New Year. However, China’s largest city went against the grain and instead had thousands of drones assemble for a midair show. It is only a matter of time before music festivals make the change too, right?
Shanghai used nearly 2,000 drones to wow onlookers. How they moved in unison to create a spinning globe or a running man you ask. Well, they all were piloted by a single computer that programed them to create different patterns. There has been a semi trend to find alternatives to fireworks as of lately. Given they are a fire hazard and create smoke pollution it is understandable.
After watching the full video you can see drones have a lot more variation than fireworks. They are able to create shapes and even a countdown that fireworks never could. They even at times were programmed to look like fireworks without the noise. However, once 2020 did finally arrive Shanghai lit up the sky for a little firework show. After all, you have to have something exploding for the new decade.
We all can agree that fireworks are still awesome. But, it is nice to see a change in the night sky when it comes to celebrating. For festivals like EDC and Defcon.1, fireworks are so essential to their identity. It would be best to always have fireworks when it comes to the peak time of the festival. But, at other points, imagine a running man shuffling around the mainstage.
We can only begin to think of all the beautiful patterns we would like to lay our eyes on with dance music on in the background.
