The Town of Little Elm recently started to implement drone shows for their residents to enjoy, giving the community opportunities to enjoy themed music and guess what image will be displayed in the sky next.
Drew Bailey, the Managing Director of Tourism and Business Development for the Town of Little Elm, has been partnering with Flylight Drone Shows’ Chief Pilot Blake Stoltz for years, but not for drone shows. Stoltz and the Town of Little Elm have been working together for a long time to put on firework shows for the town and only recently started to put on drone shows.
“Blake has all the themes,” Bailey said. “He programs the drones to do all these different characters and then he does the music for it as well. He’s on site setting them up and executing it.”
The first drone show Stoltz did for the Town of Little Elm was in October for Halloween, which was only one show and consisted of several Halloween-themed drone images in the sky. Based on feedback from the Halloween drone show, Bailey said the town decided to do more and has eight themed shows lined up for the holiday season.
“It’s incredible,” Bailey said. “People kind of just hover over the areas that are the best viewing areas and everybody has their phones out to record it. Drone shows are very neat too because they have lights and they’re kind of dancing in the sky and you don’t know what it’s going to be until you finally see it. You see kids just guessing and trying to figure it out.”
During the Halloween show, that event usually has around 2,000 people in attendance, but with the added drone show, the park ended up having around 7,000 people, Bailey said.
Stoltz has been putting on firework shows for about 23 years and his favorite show was more recently at the Little Elm Christmas tree lighting event last year. For drone shows, “every show gets better,” he said.
“The one we flew in Little Elm last weekend was the most complex show I’ve designed so far,” Stoltz said. “As of right now, it’s my favorite. It was pretty complex.”
Just like Bailey, Stoltz said he enjoys watching viewers try to guess what image is going to be in the sky next.
“The drones are so new and it’s really pretty interactive,” Stoltz said. “I think it’s a challenge for the kids to kind of try to pick out what’s happening before it happens. It’s been a little bit surprising by the interaction with the kids, but it’s been pretty great watching them try to guess what’s coming next.”
The Town of Little Elm has quite a few more shows lined up for the holiday season including some for the week of Christmas. Each show is themed and a full-line up can be found on The Lakefront at Little Elm’s Facebook page.
Visit www.lightsonthelakelittleelm.com for tickets and info!
Content shared from The Lakeside Journal.