It all began when Gov. Kristi Gnome (R-SD) posted a pouting 4th of July Tweet whining that “Sparklers Suck” because fireworks were not allowed at Mount Rushmore this year because of the high risk of wildfires from the drought
(OK – I’ll note that she seems to prefer spelling her surname N-o-e-m.)
If you scroll through the wonderful Comments responding to her whiny Tweet, she was deservedly and repeatedly torn a new one! In fact, on Daily Kos where I learned about her bitchy Tweet, I, too, responded:
Hey, Kristi —
You know what really sucks? Forest fires really suck!
These are all photos from fires — Black Hills, Custer, Hill City, Mount Rushmore, Schroeder, Storm Hill, Vineyard, Wanblee and White Draw — in YOUR state!
Then I got to thinking, I bet there are some pretty cool alternatives to fireworks. So I started looking, and found a few examples of drones being used for light shows.
I’ll start with the best one I found from the USA: It was created by Intel, so it has a little commercial flavor to it.
(If you want to decrease the viewing time and really not lose much effect, on YouTube, click the cogwheel down at the lower right – and then select “Playback Speed” to select different options if you want it faster or slower. I tried all the videos at double speed, and I don’t think it lost a thing.)
Greenpeace created a well-done display with a message for world leaders when they arrived in Cornwall, UK on June 11, 2021:
The world’s record for the longest drone light show tells the story of Vincent Van Gogh’s life, and lasted for 26 minutes. (And yes, they included a little bit about cutting his ear off.)
BUT the YouTube presentation was sped up to almost 4 times normal speed – and I increased the playback speed on YouTube to twice that. And it did not suffer one bit.
There was a clever drone light show introduction of an online game that ended with the drones forming a scannable QR code enabling folks to download the game.
But for a true “WOW!” factor, it seems China is the hands-down winner:
This year there were a number of cities that opted for a drone light show instead of fireworks – including Cincinnati, Rochester NY, Richland Hills area in Texas, Tusayan AZ, Texas A&M University, and even Macy’s included a drone light show as part of its NYC spectacular display. (St. Petersburg FL was going to, but hurricane Elsa forced a cancellation.)
But unfortunately, drone light shows are NOT cheap. And it requires 2-3 months lead time to create and will last about 5 to 10 minutes. Here’s the pricing guidelines for an Intel produced show:
For reference, a small-town 4th of July fireworks display will run $2k to $7k just for the fireworks (not counting setup, fencing, insurance, etc.). Disneyworld’s nightly firework display runs $33k.
Still, they offer a safe program with lots more options than a fireworks display.
6 Responses to “Friday Fun: Fireworks Alternatives?”
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WOW!
Amazing! Colorful and so wonderful to view. How delightful, and fantastic!
Thank you, Nameless for giving us the opportunity to view these. Great show!
Wild!
Did you notice, that, in China vision, at around minute 2:12 they showed, in effect, China’s influence spreading around the planet?
May I applaud you for your excellent response to Kristi Gnome. Why would anyone want to have fireworks if you have all that even more spectacular wildfire in their state? Perhaps she couldn’t get enough of them?
On drones: When insisting on something with similar effects, those drone shows are an excellent substitute. Costly, perhaps, but not half as costly as the wildfires and the damage they do to the planet and the pollution of fireworks themselves.
Thank you so much Nameless, this is lovely, and I’m so glad it went up on my absence. Like pretty much everything electronic, the prices will gradually cone down (I’m old enough to remember when a small hand-held electronic calcupator from HP cost $100.00.) There are also holographoc light shows – I went to one while they were in their infancy, and was quite impressed. One doesn’t hear so much about them lately. I may have more to say when I’ve had more time to digest them.
I will try to reply again, when I went to submit earlier this morning, it lost the page and there went my comment.
Totally amazing, Nameless.
I was never aware of how Drones could be flown so closely together to create these type of exhibits/shows. A bit on the costly side, by way safer than firework displays.As for gNome’s negative remark about cancelling the fireworks display shows she doesn’t care about our precious land. tRump also insulted President Biden for cancelling the fireworks too. Now if he was still in office, he would of rather had the firework shows go on and end up starting a huge fire that would of destroyed our precious land.
Thanks Nameless for these wonderful videos.
Thanks Nameless–beautiful alternative that not only protects against deadly wildfires, but probably also adds less to the air quality than fireworks would (at least an issue in China). Personal fireworks have been illegal in my county due to the fire danger for more than 35 years. A display on a lake and at the county fairgrounds that may use fire fighting personnel are what we have. Primary noncompliance actually is with New Year’s with people thinking moist plants, ground means no fire risks in error.