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Vivid Sydney has become the latest major event to suffer a drone show mishap, with almost 90 drones falling from the sky during a display on Monday night.
The “Star-Bound” drone show has been cancelled for Tuesday and Wednesday after 89 drones reportedly dropped into the water and onto marina wharves around Cockle Bay. Drone shows returned to the festival this year after being cancelled in 2025 due to overcrowding concerns.
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One witness told the ABC he had seen “cascading failures” in the drone swarm shortly after the show began at 7:30pm.
“The sound of them crashing on the wharf was considerable even from probably 10 to 15 or 20 metres away; you could hear them physically crash and smash onto the cement marina,” he said.
“They did look like they were well and truly outside their flying zones. They’re not meant to fly over anyone or even close to anyone and it fell within metres of people I was with.”
The drones at @VividSydney were dive bombing into Darling Harbour, tonight.
No, it wasn’t on purpose. pic.twitter.com/VSqSMgSzQX
— Taraustralis (@Taraustralis) May 25, 2026
Vivid organisers have said that, to their knowledge, no drones landed outside the exclusion zone.
“The specialist operators identified a technical issue and made the decision to safely discontinue the show in line with standard safety protocols,” a Vivid spokesperson said.
“Public safety is always the number one priority and a full assessment is now underway with the specialist operators and relevant government agencies advising on next steps.”
In a statement, drone operator SkyMagic said an “unforeseen change in the radio frequency” had caused the drones to malfunction.
“This anomaly caused a number of drones in the fleet to enact failsafe landing procedures in response to compromised positional accuracy,” the 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 Vivid incident follows another drone show mishap in Melbourne three years ago, in which 427 drones dramatically plummeted into the Yarra River before a Matildas soccer match against France.
In its final report released last year, the ATSB found strong winds had caused the malfunction, and that the pilot in command was not aware that the wind speed affecting the drones could be viewed on the computer software.
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