Drone show cancelled due to high winds: City of Victoria

A $25,000 drone light show scheduled to take place in the skies above Victoria’s Inner Harbour on Canada Day has been cancelled 10 minutes before its scheduled start time due to high winds.

About 200 Flyfire Kaiken show drones were ready to take off from a waterfront park near Belleville Street at 10:15 p.m. Monday for what would be the first-ever drone show over the Inner Harbour, but it was cancelled at 10:05 p.m.

City spokeswoman Colleen Mycroft said a hover test with the show’s drones and wind surveys taken by a larger drone before the show revealed wind conditions unsuitable for the show.

The 270-gram show drones equipped with lights would not have been able to maintain their position in high winds.

The seven-minute light show was to feature creations by Victoria-based Kwakwaka’wakw artist Rande Cook and an accompanying spoken word piece by the city’s poet laureate, Marie Metaphor Specht.

The thousands of people who had gathered near the inner harbour were nevertheless able to enjoy a Canada Day fireworks display on Monday evening, which began at 10:22 p.m.

Mycroft said the winds that night were strong enough to have buffeted the largest drone taking wind measurements two metres from its initial take-off position.

Kaiken drones have been tested for winds up to 34 mph (54 km/h), but the manufacturer does not recommend operators fly the drones above 70% of that limit during normal operations, she said.

These limitations are further reduced when drones fly over water and in tight formations, Mycroft said.

Mycroft said she didn’t know if the city would still have to pay for the show because the cancellation came at the last minute. “I don’t know what provisions were in the contract.”

In a statement, Mycroft said the city and the producer of the Canada Day event, Rifflandia Entertainment Company, would be in talks with the drone show operators to discuss next steps.

Elsewhere in British Columbia, a Canada Day drone show in Vernon was cancelled after individuals on electric scooters drove through a secure perimeter, evaded security personnel and hit a critical antenna at the last minute.

(protected email)

— With a Castanet file

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