Nearly 90 drones fall into Sydney Harbour during popular outdoors show VIDEO

The Vivid Sydney event is renowned for its immersive light installations, large-scale projections and cutting-edge technology displays that draw millions of visitors to Australia's largest city each year. Yet this year's festival got off to a turbulent start after a major drone malfunction forced organisers to cancel the attraction for the remainder of the event.

Festival organisers have confirmed that all remaining drone performances have been scrapped following a safety review, after nearly 90 drones plunged into Darling Harbour during a show last week, as Australian media reports.

The drone program had originally been scheduled to run across four nights through June 13. However, organisers decided not to resume the attraction after investigating the incident.

The malfunction occurred during Monday evening's 7:30 p.m. "Star-Bound" performance, when 89 drones suddenly dropped out of formation and fell into the waters of Darling Harbour.

In the immediate aftermath, organisers cancelled four scheduled performances, including the 9:30 p.m. show on that same day and both planned drone displays on Tuesday and Wednesday, while technical experts examined what went wrong.

Addressing the incident during a May 26 press conference, festival officials later confirmed on the event's website that the drone program would not return this year. The scheduled performances will instead be replaced by fireworks displays accompanying the harbour's Laser Lightfall installation.

“Following Monday night’s unforeseen technical issue at the Vivid Sydney ‘Star-Bound’ drone performance, Vivid Sydney can confirm the remaining drone shows scheduled for this year’s festival will not proceed,” a statement from Vivid Sydney said.

“We understand this will be disappointing for audiences and appreciate the public’s understanding," they noted, reiterating that public safety remains the absolute priority. 

In the days following the incident, festival representatives said specialist operators detected a technical problem during the performance and opted to terminate the show in accordance with established safety procedures.

The drones were operated by SKYMAGIC, which said the aircraft were brought down by an “unforeseen change in the radio frequency (RF) environment” during the performance.

The company described the event as an “anomaly” and said the issue caused 89 drones to fall into the waters of Cockle Bay, a section of Darling Harbour.

While no injuries were reported, the incident has raised fresh questions about the reliability of large-scale drone displays, which have become an increasingly popular feature of major public events around the world.

By Nazrin Sadigova