The rings are in as Brisbane 2032 marks nine years to go

The drone show might not have taken off, but Brisbane will still be able to get its first look at the Olympic rings as it marks nine years until the 2032 Opening Ceremony.

About 500 drones were meant to mark the occasion with a display above the Story Bridge this Saturday night, but those plans came unstuck after a malfunction during a drone show before a Matildas match in Melbourne last week.

Brisbane 2032 chief executive Cindy Hook with the Olympic rings and agitos.

The Australian Traffic Network, which performed that show and was commissioned to conduct Saturday’s drone display, has cancelled further events while it continued investigations into the incident that led to the watery demise of about 350 drones.

Brisbane 2032 chief executive Cindy Hook said, despite the setback, the show must go on.

“They’re doing an investigation and we support their decision, which is until they have the root cause of what happened, we need to put safety first,” she said.

“So the drone show won’t go ahead. That’s a bit of a disappointment, but there’s going to be dozens of other events that everyone can get involved with next weekend.”

To that end, Hook took possession of some giant Olympic rings and Paralympic agitos at Salisbury-based businesses Bailey Print Group on Tuesday. In Latin, “agito” means “I move”.

Hook said the installations would be used a lot around Queensland in the years to come.

“Being able to display the rings and agitos is a privilege of being a host city, a host region as we are in a host nation.

“I just hope it’s a way to connect and think about what’s coming. Think about the movement, what the meaning behind these symbols is, and hopefully how everybody can be part of this.”

Hook said Brisbane’s commercial rights to the Olympic rings would not start until 2027, until which point they would be used “sparingly” in south-east Queensland.

“The Australian Olympic Committee has the right to these and you’ll see them on many of their activations and where the athletes are out and about,” she said.

“But we do have the right to start to use them in strategic ways to build a narrative and build excitement for the Games and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do this weekend.”

Last month, Hook revealed international research showed Brisbane was “not particularly well-known internationally”, which presented branding challenges.

She said on Tuesday a finished brand for Brisbane 2032 was still a “couple of years out”.

“That doesn’t mean that we don’t start to talk about the narrative and what we’ve learned through the brand research and how we want to begin to build profile for the Games for Brisbane,” Hook said.

So, any indications on what that narrative might be?

“I’m going to wait ’til we are a little bit further down the track on that,” Hook said.

“For right now, we’ve got a pretty iconic set of brands behind us that we are going to amplify the messaging around.”