Drone Show Rings In 250th 4th Of July At Santa Maria’s Downtown Fridays
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) - Downtown Fridays in Santa Maria hosted a drone show to ring in the nation’s 250th 4th of July.
The “best seat in the house” literally was Downtown Fridays.
Around 8:45 Friday night, Sky Elements Drone Shows launched 100 drones into the air above the Abel Maldonado Community Youth Center for a special Independence Day presentation which coincided with Downtown Fridays.
“We have the Santa Maria High School cheer squad, the Orcutt High School Jazz Band is coming out, the mayor's going to come up on stage, do a proclamation, and then we're going to have a drone show,” says Ed Carcarey, Downtown Fridays event coordinator.
The Sky Elements crew began unloading and setting up in the afternoon on the Elks Baseball Field behind the Maldonado Center, making sure every drone was powered up, positioned and programmed.
“I feel like drone shows are definitely taking over and they definitely fit the category more with family friendly,” says Fernando Cortes, a pilot for Sky Elements Drone Shows.
The drones were piloted by a graduate of Cal Poly Pomona who says the show’s music accompaniment played on loudspeakers at Downtown Fridays.
“There'll be a playlist track going on. And while each song is being played through the drones, they will get their formation into every song,” says Cortes.
To commemorate the nation’s 250th Independence Day, the pilot says one sequence was programmed to simulate 4th-of-July-style fireworks.
“Definitely got to see some firework little images instead of actual ones blowing up,” says Cortes. “You'll see a little images of maybe the drones all colliding there, one light board on each drone to make a huge explosion of lights to kind of simulate the firework.”
The City Of Santa Maria’s Recreation And Parks Department provided the drone show, and Downtown Fridays remains free to the public.
“We have a much bigger shared demographic now where it's more representing of our city,” says Carcarey. “So a lot more general market people are coming to the event where we hadn't seen them before.”
Families crowded McClelland street for the environmentally friendly presentation ringing in our semiquincentennial Independence Day.
“Tomorrow will be all over the country doing shows for 4th of July,” says Cortes.
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