Gabrielle Russon
The grand finale of the night is about to begin at the Florida theme park … but this isn’t going to be your typical fireworks show.
With all the BANGS! and colorful explosions in the sky, Legoland Florida adds a twist by also deploying 500 drones for the first time in park history for its Halloween festivities.
The drones spell out “Happy Brick or Treat” or create a giant pumpkin and Lego Halloween characters in between bursts of colorful fireworks during the 10-minute show.
“’I’ve been at this park for almost seven years, and it’s been a conversation for many, many years. We have a perfect location right over the lake,” said Juliette Guedry, head of entertainment at Legoland Florida Resort. “It was really awesome to see it come to life this Halloween. … It’s a way of storytelling in the sky.”
Across Central Florida, several theme parks are experimenting with drone shows this year.
Crowds packed Disney Springs this summer to see a free drone show that recreated movie moments from the Death Star in “Star Wars” to the flying house in Pixar’s “Up” with Disney favorite characters like Tinker Bell in between. The show ran from May until Sept. 2.
“Disney Dreams That Soar allowed us to bring Disney storytelling to a relatively new medium using more than 800 drones,” Disney spokesperson Rachel Monnier said. “We were able to be creative and try new things, just like we’ve done with fireworks and projections over the decades.”
Could the Magic Kingdom or other Disney World theme parks fly drones in the future too?
Monnier wouldn’t say, but The Walt Disney Co. is open to experimenting with drones at other parks, like Disneyland Paris which debuted new nighttime parade this year to sync up drones with lasers, video projections and fountains.
And Legoland, which took a year to plan for the Halloween drone show, is open to more done entertainment in the future.
“I don’t know if we will get to a place where were doing it every night … that also might be a little overkill, but for seasonal things … I think we’ll probably definitely be seeing more and more popping up,” Guedry said.
Laurent Perchais îs counting on it.
Perchais founded the drone company Dronisos in Bordeaux, France and has capitalized on the growing popularity of drone shows around the world. Dronisos worked with Disneyland Paris to break a Guinness World Records with 1,571 drones making a giant Mickey Mouse head this summer.
Perchais, the force behind Central Florida’s drone shows, moved his office to Orlando’s Windermere last year.
He partners with Clermont’s Lakeridge Winery to use open land to test out his drone projects and hopes to land more jobs working with U.S. theme park companies where he says drones are a quieter, less flammable and more environmentally-friendly alternative to fireworks.
But Perchais also thinks bigger: Put the fireworks on the drones. “That’s the next level,” he said.
Legoland’s drone show, which is included in regular park admission, plays Saturdays and Sundays for the rest of October at 7:45 p.m.
