Vivid Sydney has paused its Star-Bound drone show after a technical fault caused 89 drones to come down during a performance over Cockle Bay, Darling Harbour.
The incident took place during the 7.30pm show on May 25, with subsequent performances scheduled for May 26 and 27 cancelled while organisers and operators carry out a technical and safety review.
The show is delivered by drone light show specialist Skymagic and forms part of Vivid Sydney 2026, a major annual festival staged across the city. Star-Bound had been billed as the largest drone programme in the festival’s history, with around 1,000 drones planned to perform across 22 shows over 11 nights.
According to reports, 83 drones fell into the water around Cockle Bay, while six came down on a nearby boardwalk. No injuries have been reported.
In a statement, Skymagic attributed the incident to an unexpected change in the radio frequency environment after take-off, which affected the positional accuracy of some drones. The company said the affected units activated failsafe procedures, while the main fleet was brought under control and landed safely.
The incident has drawn attention to the operational complexity behind large-scale drone displays, which have become increasingly prominent in major public events and visitor experiences. While drone fleets can deliver highly choreographed aerial imagery at scale, the Vivid Sydney malfunction underlines the importance of safety zones, geofencing, radio frequency management and contingency planning when deploying autonomous systems above crowded urban environments.
Inavate has previously reported on Vivid Sydney as a platform for large-scale AV and projection innovation, including Intel’s Drone 100 performance over Sydney Harbour in 2016.
That earlier Drone 100 project used 100 UAVs in a choreographed display over water, highlighting the emerging role of drone technology in live entertainment. A decade later, the scale of drone-based spectacle has grown dramatically, with shows such as Star-Bound demonstrating both the creative potential and the technical demands of using the sky as a display surface.