Some cities have traded fireworks shows for drone light shows. Fort Lauderdale won’t be one of them. Not this year, anyway.

A controversial proposal to swap out the city’s Fourth of July fireworks for drones quickly fizzled on Tuesday after commissioners said no to the idea. Instead, they agreed to consider using a drone light show in combination with fireworks in some form.

With the nation on the verge of celebrating a very important anniversary — the signing of the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago — this is not the year to do away with fireworks, Vice Mayor John Herbst argued Tuesday during a City Hall meeting.

“This is the 250th anniversary of our country,” Herbst said. “I don’t think this is the year to experiment with it. Back to the founding of this country, we have been celebrating with fireworks. This is a tradition that goes back to our very first Fourth of July. I think it’s important to honor that. I’m open to experimenting with this, but I don’t think this is the year to do that.”

Mayor Dean Trantalis agreed, suggesting it would be better to wait until next year to make a change. And if the city does do a drone light show, it will most definitely need music, he said.

“Fourth of July is about celebration and this would be like seeing a silent movie,” Trantalis said of a drone-only show. “Can there be speakers up and down the beach that project music to complement what we’re seeing in the air? Just seeing drones is really boring. It doesn’t have the same punch as fireworks.”

Trantalis suggested the city also look for corporate sponsors who might help pay for a bigger and better drone show that could be held in combination with a fireworks show.

“The developers who work in our community, writing a check for $25,000 or $50,000 may not be so difficult for them,” he said. “Instead of 400 to 500 drones, maybe do 4,000 to 5,000 drones.

We’re going to be competing with a lot of cities around the country on July Fourth this year. And I’d love for Fort Lauderdale to be able to stand out.”

Commissioner Steve Glassman said he’d heard from plenty of boaters worried the fireworks might be swapped out for drones.

“A lot of boaters were concerned. They said, ‘We won’t see the show,’” Glassman told the commission. “I’ve also been hearing from people who think (drones are) cleaner and something to pursue. But this is the 250th anniversary of the country. Is this the year to do away with fireworks? I’m not so sure.”

Other cities in South Florida have already embraced drone shows, including Pompano Beach, Lauderhill and Miami.

Fort Lauderdale spent $145,000 on its Fourth of July fireworks show in 2025. A drone show would cost between $80,000 and $100,000, city officials say.

Early on in Tuesday’s discussion, Commissioner Ben Sorensen pushed for a drone-only show, touting the fact that drones are cleaner, quieter and safer. They are also cheaper.

Switching to a drone-only show would have saved around $65,000 a year, city officials said.

But in the end, Sorensen wasn’t able to persuade his colleagues.

It was Sorensen who floated the idea of using drones instead of fireworks during a commission meeting in October.

“Debris falls from fireworks,” he said. “There’s metals, microplastics, other components that fall into the ocean. Drones are cleaner, quieter. And this would save us money as well.”

Sorensen credited Vanessa Apotheker, a dog-owning resident in his district, for coming up with the suggestion.

“My parents live in San Antonio and they do it there,” Apotheker told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Tuesday. “My dog gets really scared with the fireworks. It kind of just popped into my head.”

Not everyone liked the idea.

“A drone show is a horrible idea,” resident Robert Bolber told the Sun Sentinel.

Bolber was not a fan of a drone show held in Deerfield Beach last year, saying he found it “boring” without music or sound.

“If you don’t see (the drones) at the correct angle, you can’t even tell what the shape is,” he said.

Like other cities around the nation, Fort Lauderdale has been celebrating the Fourth of July for decades with a fireworks show, Trantalis noted on Tuesday. And that needs to happen this year too, he said.

“Maybe we could take an opportunity here and be good stewards of the earth and not be polluting it with air pollution and debris and noise,” he said. “But I don’t want to take away from the feeling of the Fourth of July. Think about how we can combine it with music or other kinds of images that give people a moment of excitement to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country.”

Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan