Sudbury and Timmins, Ont. opt for drone shows instead of fireworks for Canada Day
CBC
Two northeastern Ontario cities are foregoing fireworks shows this year and going with drone shows instead.
The City of Timmins and Science North, in Sudbury, have hired a company based in Trent, Ont., called North Star Drone Shows to put on the night's entertainment.
North Star Drone Shows president Patrice Guy says each show is unique for their clients' needs. The Sudbury show, for example, will feature an image of the Big Nickel, among other Sudbury landmarks.
To create those images they fly more than 100 drones equipped with LED lights that fly in unison to create different shapes in the night sky.
"Basically see each drone as a pixel," Guy said.
"So you have pixels in the sky and they will be positioned to create images, to send messages. It's very hard to explain until you see one. People are just mesmerized by it."
Guy first started to experiment with drone shows in 2017. He was living in the Philippines at the time, and a friend had a company that was putting on drone shows.
Drone shows gained global attention when the 2020 Tokyo Olympics used 1,800 drones to create images of a globe and the Olympic rings during the opening ceremony.
After Guy returned to Canada, he started Northstar Drone Shows in 2020. He says business has grown every year since then.
"About 40 or 50 per cent of our business is people that didn't do fireworks before," he said. "People having a company party or a launch of a product, or things like that."
Guy says municipalities and organizations that typically put on fireworks shows for different celebrations, are also considering drones now because of fire bans.
Last year Science North had to cancel its Canada Day fireworks in Sudbury because of a fire ban in the region.
Kate Gauvreau, Science North's senior manager of on-site business and services development, says a drone show turned out to be around the same price as a professional fireworks display.
She adds the drone show also aligns well with Science North's overall mission.
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