Thousands of people gathered at Science North and the Ramsey Lake shore along Bell Park to take in Tuesday night’s Canada Day fireworks and drone show.
A team from Toronto-based Illumin Drone Shows were on site several hours before the show kicked off, laying drones out in a grid pattern so they’d be ready for takeoff that evening.
“We’ve been designing the show over the last couple of months,” Jonathan Sprang from Illumin Drone Shows told Sudbury.com in the early afternoon during a brief break from putting fresh batteries in the drones. “It’s all pre-programmed.”
This year’s 300 drones is a significant jump from the 100 used for last year’s show, which Sprang said allowed the show to be seen from much farther away, thereby hitting up a much larger crowd, particularly when they’re reaching approximately 300 feet in the sky.
The goal behind the show?
“What we’re trying to do is bring that Canadian pride back,” he said, citing various colourful displays included in the show, such as Canada flags, a hockey player, snowflake and other scenes reminiscent of Canada. The drones were illuminated in changing colours
A turtle, scientist and other displays also recognized Science North within the show, which was timed to music.
The show was followed by a more traditional fireworks display over Ramsey Lake.
People packed the area, including the newly reopened Jim Gordon Boardwalk, to take in the shows. As is tradition with fireworks displays, and now drone shows, traffic was gridlocked as soon as the shows concluded.
The drone show and fireworks display followed a day’s worth of family friendly Canada Day activities at Science North.
Click here for more photos of the fireworks display and drone show, and here for our coverage of the daytime activities.
This was the second year Science North hosted a drone show for Canada Day, and representatives from the organization told Sudbury.com that they’d yet to plan what next year’s show would consist of.