Drone shows: Will they overtake firework displays? | Hacker News Reader

Drone shows: Will they overtake firework displays?

bbc.co.uk

17 pointsneversaydie49 comments

I hope not. It was interesting the first few times I saw it, mostly because of the complications of coordinating all those drones in formation, and a bit in the capital expenses required to set it up. But I don't really find any enjoyment from watching a bunch of drones make simple slow moving animations in the sky.

Its like digital watches, impressive the first few times it is accomplished, but now that they are pretty easy to find and you can see a demonstration of it working without much effort, I don't see much point in seeking it out nor have any desire in watching it work.

Considering the alternative in question is fireworks, which have been in use for literally thousands of years, not being "interesting" is a questionable argument.

I've built a handful of drones but hovering LEDs making lawn trimmer noises is not a replacement for blinding flashes and deafening booms.

Fireworks offer visceral enjoyment because it's explosions overhead. Drones don't offer this but they do have a "wow" factor for their novelty. Now that the novelty is wearing off there's little left to actually enjoy.

The absence of explosions makes drone shows much more enjoyable for some people. Explosions are also the reason fireworks are banned and/or regulated in lots of places most of the time.

That's an interesting graph, how long before "boring after repetitions"? Feels like an XKCD exploration.

What is your opinion about fireworks? Maybe you were not part of the audience to begin with?

Hasn't happened yet, but I can't wait for the first shots in the US "war on fireworks". It's a natural extension of recent culture wars, combining many familiar elements of climate policy debate, worry over China, the inalienable rights of Americans to buy things that explode, etc. Have any big municipalities replaced their July 4th fireworks with drone displays?

I would argue that it has already started to some degree, you can't buy really any fireworks in non-specialty stores anymore, many jurisdictions ban all sales, and every 4th there are cops chasing down people illegally launching fireworks in cities. As you said, it hasn't been connected to the greater culture war zeitgeist but I agree it's only a matter of time.

Maybe that's for the better. I've seen people launching fireworks in neighborhoods and it may be fun for them, im sure, but it's a nuisance for everyone else and their dogs. In addition to fires these may cause they always leave a terrible mess behind.

Lol "terrible mess". Massive wildfires are started every year because of fireworks.

I wasn't aware wildfires were started with fireworks, yeah, that's even worse than littering a neighborhood after a session of nuisance that could last a whole night.

Oregon slapped a teenager with like $20 million in fines for starting huge wildfire with fireworks. Kid streamed the whole thing on social media. Anything for the gram, baby.

The last few years a handful of gender reveal parties started fires, too.

Oh wow, didn't know about this. If the kid isn't rich they probably won't be able to get that money from him. Yeah, social media is pushing people to do crazy things and it's quite destructive for the society. We took this genie out of the bottle, is there a way to tame it? And there's the AI genie, we'll see some very bad consequences down the line, im sure of it.

Except fireworks "code Chinese"

I kinda forsee drone shows getting so extravagant that they make fireworks shows seem quaint: "why don't the fireworks make any pictures?"

Then the drone shows get oversaturated because they can easily be put on day after day without expending any munitions. Then they start to be seen as a nuisance and get regulated.

I don't know where you're from, but in the US the primary code for fireworks is overtly patriotic as they are primarily associated with Independence Day celebrations on the 4th of July.

Yes, perhaps in other places they are associated with China, but Americans generally don't know that fireworks were invented in China, and probably not super aware that all cheap consumer fireworks are manufactured there too.

“And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air”

Fireworks are about as American as you get.

Ugh, we’re going to interpret the second amendment to cover fireworks, aren’t we? States will be overruled, the New Hampshire border town economy as well as the hands of many drunken Massholes are in for some damage.

This is pretty much exactly how it works already though, go look on google maps at the MA/NH/VM border. As for 2A, well the Supreme Court seems unwilling to apply it to firearms right now so I wouldn't expect it to be generalized anytime soon.

My joke was that the border town economies in NH would be ruined because it would become legal to sell fireworks in MA.

Oh I see haha, I misread

I'd imagine 4th of July is unlikely to shift to majority drones (at least in the near term) due to the economics of it - there are a lot of fireworks shows all concentrated on one evening, and the corresponding number of drone fleets would be sitting mostly idle for the rest of the year. (And I agree that Americans like explosives and would definitely object if you took them away.)

If the price of the drones comes down further, or fireworks become more regulated, then maybe.

> and the corresponding number of drone fleets would be sitting mostly idle for the rest of the year

Would they, or would cities find new occasions to use them because they are already bought and paid for? Maybe Memorial and Labor day drone shows, or "Saturday In The Park" drone shows, or Christmas and New Years drone shows. If they already have them in house, why not use them more? I know I would love that.

More likely some kind of advertisement.

War on fireworks for private citizens, maybe. Fireworks are already pretty much illegal for the public in Massachusetts, but yet there are still lots of fireworks shows on July 4th put on by groups with an appropriate license.

Went to a show in Nashville with some friends, I think last year. And drones were definitely incorporated in (interestingly showing Star Wars and then US military assets), but it was done in tandem with the fireworks. Which as a distraction during transitional elements does seem like a good use for them.

Honestly I think the biggest threat is also fireworks NIMBYism, people don't like the loud sounds disturbing their lives, their pets, etc combined with the general pressure of bigger and better exacerbating those problems.

To me fireworks are enjoyable because of the light, sound and smell experience, plus the slightly chaotic/unpredictable behaviour.

Drone shows are pretty but.. well, quickly becomes kind of predictable and dull. Like any CGI in movies these days, just never amazes me or gives any "wow"-feeling like it did when Terminator 2 came out.

I love seeing chemistry in action in the form of fireworks shows. The sights, sounds, and even smells(who doesn,t love sulfur?). There is a local fireworks manufacturer here in the Midwest US that supplies a lot of municipal shows. No China needed if that's a problem for you.

If I want to watch pixels, I'll watch a video on a screen.

I hope so. Leaving the question of air quality aside, fireworks are a torture upon wildlife. Every year in Germany, about a thousand dogs and cats are lost around NYE because they are scared off by fireworks [1], to say nothing about actual wildlife like birds, rabbits or other animals you'll find around every city that is traumatized or directly killed from the stress. The trash load is insane as well, it's hundreds of cubic meters [5] worth of trash that major cities have to dispose of on the taxpayers' dime because people can't be arsed to pick up and dispose of their ordnance after themselves.

And on top of that, you get the insane caseload for medical staff in the weeks before, during and after from all the dumb drunk fucks thinking it's wise to handle fireworks while being drunk out of their mind - 2024 we got five dead [2] across Germany and hundreds of injured in Berlin alone [3], we even got an "influencer" shooting a rocket into a home for social media clout [4].

IMHO: The sooner fireworks go off and die, the better. The problem is, it's a certainty that the usual far-right crowd will drag this issue into their culture war allegations bullshit, just as they did with electric cars, renewable power or smoking bans...

[1] https://www.derhund.de/fast-500-hunde-um-den-jahreswechsel-e...

[2] https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/gesellschaft/jahreswechsel-...

[3] https://www.rbb24.de/panorama/beitrag/2025/01/silvester-berl...

[4] https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/berlin-raketenschuss-...

[5] https://www.rbb24.de/panorama/beitrag/2024/12/berlin-silvest...

Ah there it is, the incendiary ban-em-all culture war post.

> incendiary

I applaud your wordplay, it really is fitting the topic, but come on. I made some serious effort to cite credible sources for all of my points.

The only thing I see as incendiary in my post is the "dumb drunk fucks", but honestly, people who deal with dangerous (and sometimes outright illegally powerful) explosives while being drunk out of their mind deserve no civility.

I hope so as well! I believe anyone that owns or knows a dog or cat is quite sensitized to the awful noises of fireworks (and straight-up explosives, as they are sometimes used). But I’m afraid too many people are still needlessly fascinated by the spectacle and don’t want things to change.

As of now it's seems you can barely discuss any of this without someone getting political.

There are also many paths in between uncontrollably selling fireworks to anyone over 18 and banning it completely.

I would highly prefer some cities just openly banning it so people have places to go to to avoid it.

Edit:// also there are rockets and whatever without loud "boom" no idea why they aren't more common

I like your take, as it provides a place for those who oppose it without making the massive leap from "I can find reasons to support my distaste for it" to "No one anywhere ever should do it".

Not to get too political, but in the USA, I always romanticized states as the places where enough people could gather under the "I don't like X" banner and make their own way, without neighboring states trying to use federal law to ban it anyway.

We're way past that though, sadly.

I was travelling Spain this year and there was nowhere to hide. The most remote places turned into outdoor festivals and everywhere else everyone below 20 or so was shooting around. My dog hated it, I did too. I never saw fireworks, just "boooom" going on for days.

The real surprise was that there was no major place advertising to at least ban the "boom" things. And that it was going on for about a week.

Compared to that being loud one night, in a civilized matter, focusing on beautiful and not loud stuff would be a tame alternative.

It's important to understand that the firework situation today is VERY different from 5 years ago.

Before pandemic, big fireworks were only sold to professionals, and they were exploded at a pre-determined time and place. If you like big fireworks: no problem you can simply attend one of these shows. If you don't like fireworks: no problem just be somewhere else on that particular evening

Nowadays anyone can buy big stuff. And they are setting them off constantly. I live in an urban area and big BOOMs are going off all the time in my neighborhood, especially at night. I'm not sure how anyone can argue that this is OK or a matter of preference. It's a major disruptor to quality of life, and I wish all fireworks enthusiasts would get to experience this

If you ask me I would prefer a regression to the pre-2020 situation. Who knows. If kids weren't allowed to buy fireworks, Maybe the Palisades would still be here and my parents and all their friends would still have a house

Birds don't get lost. Are you allowed in Germany to talk about the real problem surrounding fireworks, or is that a fine/prison?

> Birds don't get lost.

You're right - they die, and I reworded the post to make it obvious what I meant. Thousands of dead birds are the norm [1][2].

> Are you allowed in Germany to talk about the real problem surrounding fireworks, or is that a fine/prison?

A barely veiled "the immigrants", eh? And no, that has been a problem that existed decades before the big 2015ff migration events. In school, a friend of mine blew up half his hand, for example.

[1] https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/tausend-tote-bergf...

[2] https://utopia.de/vogel-in-panik-aufnahmen-zeigen-chaos-beim...

> A barely veiled "the immigrants", eh?

I should be a cop. It's almost too easy to get a confession without the question being leading i any way whatsoever.

– Are you allowed in China to talk about the real problem, or is that a fine/prison?

– What, are you trying to say that the Communist party is bad, that's ridiculous!

I enjoy fireworks. A lot.

Some of the reasons you brought up are valid, but, at the end of the day the world is a collection of personalities and there is one collective personality that likes fireworks. That will never go away :).

The nice thing is that we can both coexist. You have a right to be against them, I have a right to be for them. We both enjoy times when there are no fireworks and times when there are many.

Since you seem quite knowledgeable about the topic. What do you think could be done to ameliorate the issues you mention, while also letting firework enjoyers enjoy their thing once in a while?

It's like going to a NASCAR or drag race with electric cars. What's the fun? The fun with internal combustion engines is the loud engines, the lumpy idles, the reverberation of the engine and exhaust into the environment, you can feel it. The hair on your skin will rise, you will close your ears, you can smell the exhaust. Likewise the same with fireworks, you feel it, if you are close enough you can smell it, LEDs can't match the bright explosive lights. It will never be comparable.

In a few years we'll be able to enjoy the spectacle of the drone-firework wars when drone show operators see their widgets under attack from fireworks aficionados. See that 'copter there, seems to be the guide drone for the flock around it. Take it out with a barrage of rockets, sayonara! Oh shit, there's a drone watching us over there, move before it calls in reinforcements!

I remember seeing my first drone show in 2016, and it was fairly rudimentary. But even still, it was awesome-inspiring and moving.

I wonder if you can get a strong enough laser on a drone that it’ll show up in the sky, in the fashion that a laser show does.

A great big flying vector display would be a cool upgrade for a laser show.

No. Please don't. Both of them require different skills and technique to get it perfect.

Drone shows will probably overtake fireworks not because people like drone shows, but because cities don't like firework shows and never have. Cities will switch to drones once they feel it can be done without losing the next election, and when people stop showing up they'll just stop altogether

We first had that discussion some 10 years ago. They're not taking the world by storm, we know that much.

They are a worse variant of the fireworks we know, but they're different enough to be something else. Cost and regulatory overhead has meant that we haven't fully explored what that could be. Drones work at a completely different speed, and with a different language. Much slower, much more docile. More female, if you will.

The same way that good firework is an art form, a good drone show is a whole choreography, and must be treated as such. It is neither a flashing firework, not a hovering dot matrix display.

Stuff is hard.

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