A classic midnight fireworks display to ring in the new year? Yawn – it’s all about drones now. Melbourne will say hello to 2021 this New Year’s Eve with Australia’s largest ever drone display.
350 of the little unmanned aircrafts will take to the sky on December 31st for a cool aerial performance, as per Time Out.
For seven minutes, they’ll conquer the skies above Dockland’s Victoria Harbour. The performance is happening twice too – once at 9:30pm and then again before the midnight fireworks display.
“With 350 drones lighting up the sky – this will be one of the first drone shows of this scale to ever take place in the southern hemisphere,” Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp said.
The drone display is the creation of drone art organisation Celestial, who have quite the pedigree – they previously put on a performance at Edinburgh’s New Year’s Eve celebrations back in 2020, which you can see below.
Ticketed celebration zones will be in place for the New Year’s Eve festivities, with zones set for Alexandra Gardens, Docklands, Flagstaff Gardens, and Treasury Gardens. Expect the usual mix of food trucks and entertainment (and remember you must be fully vaccinated if you want to gain entry).
Street Feasts is also returning for 2021, with eight areas (Russell Place, Fed Square etc) hosting food pop-ups from some of Melbourne’s best local eateries, accompanied by some nice live music. You’ll also need to be fully vaccinated for this and you can book your spot for Street Feasts here.
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The full programme for the city’s NYE celebrations will be announced on Thursday, November 25th. Head to the council’s NYE website for further information. With Melbourne finally out of lockdown and things looking up, a dazzling drone display sounds like a great way to see out the year.
For more on this topic, follow the Travel Observer.
Check out Celestial’s 2020 Edinburgh New Year’s Eve drone performance:
