# Desert Swarm, Noor Riyadh drone show – Drone Stories

> 3,000 drones flew Desert Swarm, a new chapter of Franchise Freedom, the DRIFT work by Lonneke Gordijn, Ralph Nauta and Lucas van Oostrum, at Noor Riyadh…

Source: https://dronestories.com/drone-shows/desert-swarm-noor-riyadh/

3,000 drones and a new record

# Desert Swarm, Noor Riyadh

Franchise Freedom started as a flock of a few hundred drones. In the desert outside Riyadh it became Desert Swarm: 3,000 drones moving as one murmuration, at the time a new record for the largest drone light show ever flown.

| | |
|---|---|
| Client | Noor Riyadh |
| Location | Noor Riyadh festival, Riyadh |
| Drones | 3,000 |
| Type | art |

More [drone shows in Riyadh](/drone-shows/in/riyadh/)

## The story behind the lights

Noor Riyadh is the largest light art festival in the world, a citywide programme of installations, projections and performances. For it, Franchise Freedom, a work by DRIFT, created by the artists Lonneke Gordijn, Ralph Nauta and Lucas van Oostrum, flew at a size it had never flown before: 3,000 drones, each one following the same simple rules a starling follows in a flock, together forming one living shape over the desert.

The swarm opened and closed like breathing, split into separate flocks and found itself again, with no image drawn by hand: the movement comes from the algorithm, as it does in nature. It flew every evening of the festival, on weekdays at nine and on weekends at nine and eleven, and set a new record for the largest drone light show.

Desert Swarm is Franchise Freedom, a work by DRIFT, created by the artists Lonneke Gordijn, Ralph Nauta and Lucas van Oostrum. A DRIFT and Drone Stories production.

## More shows

[All shows](/drone-shows/)

[### FORMULA 1 LAS VEGAS GRAND PRIX

Formula 1 · Las Vegas - USA · 1,000 drones](/drone-shows/f1-las-vegas-gp-2023/)[### Shakira at Copacabana

Shakira · Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro · 1,500 drones](/drone-shows/shakira-copacabana/)[### Björk at Coachella

Björk · Coachella · Indio, California · 864 drones](/drone-shows/coachella-drone-show/)

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