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Vivid drone show cancelled 20 minutes before it was due to start
By Sarah McPhee
Vivid Sydney has cancelled its drone show 20 minutes before it was due to run at Circular Quay on Saturday night.
The shock announcement was made by organisers on social media, stating the decision was “due to forecasted weather conditions”.
Vivid Sydney has cancelled the drone show on the final night of the festival.Credit: Wolter Peeters
“The show will not be rescheduled, as tonight marks the conclusion of Vivid Sydney 2024,” the post reads. “We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for understanding. Please be patient when exiting.”
The alert included a timestamp of 8.43pm. However, it was shared across social media platforms including on X, formerly known as Twitter, at 8.52pm, and Facebook at 8.55pm. The Love is in the Air drone show was scheduled to commence at 9.10pm.
Organisers had earlier advised that “large crowds are expected for the drone show”, adding that drone operation “is highly sensitive and dependent on weather conditions to proceed”.
In response to the news on Instagram, one person said: “Sitting here at [Mrs Macquarie’s Chair] and weather is fine. Thanks for the notice. 9.12pm.”
Another woman added: “We have come all the way from western suburbs just to see the drone show, and there is no expected rain according to the weather. How disappointing.”
Others commented that they had been waiting for hours, including some people who said they had travelled from interstate for the spectacle.
Vivid Sydney narrowly avoided disaster last weekend when crowds swarmed to Sydney Harbour to capture a glimpse of the drone show, one of the main attractions of the annual festival of light.
After the show concluded at about 9.20pm on June 8, a bottleneck formed near the Overseas Passenger Terminal as the crowd moved towards Circular Quay and Wynyard train stations.
The near the Overseas Passenger Terminal after the Vivid drone show on June 8.Credit: X/@anth0888
The festival officially ends at 11pm on Saturday after running since May 24. However, the drone show was only scheduled on three nights of the program.
Sydney’s Observatory Hill recorded 70 millimetres of rain in the 24 hours to 9am on Saturday, and a further six millimetres by 4pm. The Bureau of Meteorology had forecast southwesterly winds of between 15 and 20 km/h.
A coastal warning for damaging surf was also issued for regions including Sydney metropolitan, due to a Tasman low off the NSW coast “generating a large southeast swell”.