The 2023 Drone Show. And a proposal for a different experiment in 2024.

Where appropriate, I am all about trying something different. So I’m willing to see last night’s drone show as a noble experiment. But it was an unsuccessful experiment–and an expensive one.

That said, there were a lot of positives as well as lessons to be learned on how we can do  this sort of event (and others) much better in the future.

Bang for buck…

You know that expression ‘bang for buck’? The drone show was literally that! 😀 How much ‘wow’ do you get for your dollar with ‘bangs’ vs. ‘tech’?

The show, which used 250 drones for prox 15 minutes, was almost twice as expensive ($90,000) as traditional pyrotechnics. But based on what I saw from audience reaction, it was about half as exciting as the traditional ($50,000-ish?) fireworks displays we’ve done in the past.

Put another way, I’ve watched some more elaborate drone shows, with 1,000 drones and highly choreographed music and they are very exciting. But to get to the equivalent excitement as the good ol’ explosions, you’d have to spend four to eight times as much money!

Fireworks simply provide far more value for money. It probably takes $200,000-$400,000 of ‘tech’ to provide the same entertainment value as $50,000 of gun powder. Like all things tech, that cost will probably come down in a few years. But as a small city, with many worthy needs, we can afford to wait until it does and spend our limited funds on those.

By the way, the total budget request (including private security, bands, DJ, was $145,000. Careful bookkeepers will always note that a budget is not a spend. That may or may not be the final cost and may or may not include other expenses like PD overtime or other City funds.

Overall effect…

I understand that most people who bother to comment on the Drone Show will do so based on some amount of passion. Either they are against any fireworks or they are totally pro fireworks.

But for the purposes of this portion of my analysis, I am looking at it purely in terms of the show. And you cannot fake audience reaction. Most of the people who showed up came in with no ‘agenda’. They just wanted to be entertained.

First off, I walked the entire surrounding neighbourhoods and many people remarked that the visibility of the show was not nearly as good as with fireworks.

Second, I am very glad that the City hired a DJ and bands during the day because that meant there was a soundtrack for the show. Well done. We can argue as to the merits of Euro-Disco as being the best possible soundtrack, but if there had been nothing, it woulda been just confusing. But again, people not directly at the Marina did not hear that sound track. Love it or hate it, the ‘booms’ are a part of the show and they travel in a way that a sound system does not.

The only drone displays that really got a cheering crowd response were the closing slides “Happy Independence Day” and “Des Moines”, which were guaranteed crowd pleasers.

And this may sound snippy, but perhaps the best comment I got on the quality of the show was from two homeless guys I met on the way home. They wondered, “Why wasn’t the bird an eagle?”

That’s actually a very perceptive remark. And my guess is that you can’t render a bald eagle or any other complex symbols with 250 drones.

Sideshow…

But the fascinating thing to me was that the drones did not take place in a vacuum. As you can see from this video (credit The Waterland Blog), before, during and after the display, there were public and private displays going on in Vashon, Three Tree Point, Redondo, Tacoma and Burien. And almost every time there was an explosion, it drew cheers just as loud (and louder) as those from the Drone Show.

So to a very real extent, our event was kinda the sideshow. The events the crowds most visibly responded to, seemed to me to be those of the shows coming from other areas. And ironically, those shows cost the City of Des Moines zero dollars.

Here’s a semi-serious thought experiment: Given all that no-cost entertainment, how many people would’ve showed up if we had set up food trucks, a stage, bands, vendors and what not, even with nothing (no drones or fireworks)?

Diversity

The population of Des Moines (and the area) is now almost 50/50 BIPOC. But the vast majority of the time you’d never know it by the mix of people at our various waterfront events.

There are almost no other events that appeal to the full and true range of our community as this kind of event. The people who showed up, and oohed and ahhhed far more strongly for the traditional fireworks should be heard. I’m not talking about ‘fireworks’ per se. But we should see this as a teachable moment and figure out how to program events that appeal to a much broader range of residents.

Logistics

I always look at these one-off events as alpha-tests for bringing more tourism to the area. And there are other lessons to be learned here concerning ‘making Des Moines a destination’.

I noticed a large portion of the Des Moines PD out helping with traffic management, as well as at least eight private security check points. (Thanks to the PD for putting in the extra effort!)

However, this was an all hands on deck effort in terms of staff and money to pull off this one event–almost as much as the ‘event’ itself. It worked out OK, but there’s no way it’s sustainable. It also pointed out all the choke points (eg. Cliff Ave.) that would need to be re-thought.

Because here’s the thing: we’ve been doing this now for twenty years. And at some point, it has to become ‘normal’. In other words, if we really want Des Moines to be a tourist destination, we’re gonna need to figure out how to process that many people, without breaking the bank, at least once a month–as other tourist towns do–rather than treating each of these as ‘special’. If this is what we want, we have to develop a system to make it possible.

The war zones…

It’s hard to quantify this stuff, but in my opinion, the illegal fireworks were just off the hook in a lot of neighbourhoods. We haven’t been trying to enforce them for many years, they aren’t getting any better, and we should be willing to have the discussion as to why that is.

Frankly, I think that the failure to write those very expensive tickets has made ‘the law’ something of a joke–so much so that now other cities are backsliding and making fireworks legal.

The drones did nothing to alleviate the real complaints people have–which are in the neighbourhoods. In fact, the large expense was money we could have used for enforcement to benefit the entire city.

I understand that there is a contingent of people who see any reduction in fireworks as a sign of progress, but frankly, one of the main arguments for doing fireworks, oh those many years ago, was to give residents a single healthy outlet for their pyromania. 😀 And to my mind now we have the worst of both worlds. An expensive drone show that looks ‘progressive’ but is actually enabling the bad behavours.

Some positives…

All that said, there were some very positive aspects of this year’s event. The DJ/Band/Food Truck concept was very good and that should be both retained and expanded on because that is a big part of what brought so many people down to the water. Again: Well done!

But we should go back to the traditional fireworks. They provided far better value for money, and, more importantly, doing so would free up a bunch of money to try another experiment, this time to do something real about the illegal fireworks–which would be a far better use of public money.

My immodest proposal…

My sense is that residents who set off fireworks are mostly the same characters every year. They certainly are in my neighbourhood, and in the others I’ve walked over the years. In other words, the offenders, or at least the places they launch their displays are well known–so much so that the police can go out ahead of time and issue many warnings. That is what needs to change.

I would encourage the City Council to take the excess funds we used for drones this year and apply it to an all-in fireworks enforcement campaign for July, 2024. Hire extra people. Spare no expense. Find out if it is possible to reduce the illegal activity. Enough with the ‘warnings’. Especially with people who have previously been warned? Just. Write. Tickets. Call it a ‘broken windows’ approach if you will.

The results may turn out to be as ‘meh’ as the drone show. Or there may be other challenges to implementation. But we should discuss what they are and be as bold and innovative in trying to do something different as we have this year with the drones.

Unambiguous enforcement of illegal fireworks in Des Moines is at least as worthy an experiment as the 2023 drone show.