Vivid Sydney has cancelled all remaining drone shows after 83 drones fell into the waters of Cockle Bay during a Monday night performance, ending the run of a feature that had been billed as one of the festival’s biggest draws. Six of the drones also landed on a boardwalk, but no injuries were reported.
The decision, confirmed on Saturday, means the drone displays scheduled for the next two weeks will not go ahead. Fireworks will now fill those slots at Darling Harbour, running at the same times as the cancelled shows and paired with the Laser Lightfall experience.
That change matters because visitors had already seen four performances pulled on Tuesday and Wednesday while crews carried out a technical and safety review. Vivid said public safety remained the absolute priority and that the call had been guided by expert technical and regulatory advice, while also saying it understood the move would disappoint audiences and that certainty for visitors, residents and event attendees had been a major factor.
The incident happened during Star-Bound, the drone show that went awry on Monday night because of unforeseen technical difficulties. Skymagic said an unforeseen change in the radio frequency environment after take-off compromised the positional accuracy of the fleet, a failure that sent 83 drones into the harbour and six onto the boardwalk.
Dyfan Rhys said early indications showed there was no foul play present, though investigators were still looking at all possibilities. He also said the public was not at risk despite the dramatic images circulating on social media, adding that crews shut down to preserve the safety zone.
The cancellation also lands against the backdrop of a show that had already been scrapped last year amid crowd control concerns before returning this year as Australia’s most extensive event of its kind. It featured 1,000 purpose-built drones made specifically for large-scale aerial displays, which made Monday’s failure all the more visible.
For now, the answer is simple: the drones are out, the fireworks are in, and the unresolved question is what changed in the radio frequency environment enough to bring down an entire fleet in the middle of Vivid Sydney’s busiest stretch. Visitors heading back to Darling Harbour over the next two weeks will still get the spectacle, but not the one the festival had planned.
