The story behind the lights
Burning Man did not organise the festival in 2021, but 20,000 people came to Black Rock City anyway. Building and burning art was not allowed. So we brought light to the playa with drones: we flew the art that could not be built, as an homage to installations from earlier years, and we flew the Man and “burned” it in light. Kimbal Musk helped make it happen.
“This was not a light show. This was the ritual we all had traveled thousands of miles to experience.” Kimbal Musk
Two Days, Three Different shows
We performed three different shows at the Playa: one on Friday morning, one on Friday night, and one on Saturday night. According to the audience, the pieces that flew were memorable. Not only aesthetically but emotionally. On Friday morning, a tribute was paid to George Mueller, founder of Robot Heart and friend to many in the Burns community. He passed away suddenly last year, so we decided to join the Robot Heart community in honoring him. Friday night, homage was paid to some of the works of art from the past. This was a special show because we flew above a baseball cage. That performance made us the first to fly above people, without endangering anyone. It changed the whole perspective of the show. Saturday was all about the most recognizable show of all. We started the performance with Franchise Freedom building up to the week’s big moment. A huge man was revealed along with an excellent musical build-up made by Unders Music. This reveal shocked the playa. No one expected that a man could be flown 300 feet high. After the man was ‘burned’, the airfield was surrounded by people. Grateful and loving as you would expect from a Burning Man.
Story in the skies from…
Black Rock City during Free Burn 2021. The Burning Man drone show is one of our never to forget Drone Stories moments!
More about the Burning Man drone show
For our Burning Man drone show, we sure had some challenges to overcome. First, getting everything there was a hustle because of the lag of resources. And what do you think about charging batteries at 40 degrees Celsius? Also, we didn’t stick to 1 Burning Man drone show but flew 3 shows in 2 days. Making sure all safety measures were air-tight is pretty hard with 20.000 people being free to walk or bike everywhere. In the end, everything worked out though!
More about Drone Stories
Our drone show company has flown many different drone shows over the years. You can find all our drone shows. By the way, are you interested in what a drone show costs or finding out how we create a drone show proposal?
Films of the 2021 burn
People in the desert filmed the shows from every angle. A few of the films: Free Burn 2021 by Keenan Hock, the “Man Burn” drone show, the Friday night show and our own film of the performance.
Our shows at the 2021 Renegade Burn appear in The Man Will Burn, HBO’s documentary series about Burning Man.
