All remaining Vivid Sydney drone shows have been cancelled following a technical failure at Monday night’s show, where almost 90 drones fell from the sky.
Drone shows were scheduled for most nights throughout the festival, which runs until June 13, but Vivid Sydney said these would now be replaced with firework displays from Sunday.
In a statement, the festival organiser said the cancellation was guided by “technical and regulatory assessments” carried out by SkyMagic, the drone show operator.
“Providing certainty for visitors, residents and event attendees as Vivid Sydney continues over the coming weeks has also been an important consideration in making this decision,” Vivid Sydney said.
“Public safety will always remain the highest priority.”
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At Monday night’s 7:30pm “Star-Bound” show, 1,000 drones ascended into the sky, but 83 fell into Sydney Harbour and six others landed on the ground and on a bridge around Cockle Bay.
The festival said efforts were underway to retrieve the drones.
In a statement, SkyMagic said it was working closely with authorities to identify what external interference caused some of the drones to fall from the sky during Monday night’s show.
“On this basis, the decision has been made that the drone performances will not return for the remainder of Vivid Sydney 2026,” it said.
The company had previously said spectators were not at risk when the drones fell.
Drone shows were planned for almost every night until the end of the festival. (Supplied: Destination NSW)
It suspected an “unforeseen change in the radio frequency” was to blame for the failure.
“This anomaly caused a number of drones in the fleet to enact failsafe landing procedures in response to compromised positional accuracy,” the earlier statement read.
“No vehicle escaped the safety boundary of the show parameters and the reaction of the pilots and crew were timely and appropriate in accordance with our operations manual and processes.”
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has launched an investigation into the incident.