photo by: Shawn Valverde

Summerfest attendees wait for a drone show at the Douglas County Fairgrounds on Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The show was ultimately canceled.

A mix of heavy rain and a failure of Wi-Fi and satellite communications grounded the planned drone lights show at Summerfest Wednesday night.

Porter Arneill, assistant Parks and Recreation director for arts and culture, said that while the 200 drones were set and ready during a window with clear skies, disaster struck right before the launch time at around 10 p.m.

“Everything was a go,” Arneill said. “Inexplicably, the Wi-Fi and their satellite connection absolutely quit.”

Arneill said that sudden disconnection meant the drone team was forced to do a complete system reboot, but by the time it was ready at around 10:50 p.m., there was another thunderstorm coming through, forcing the city to call off the drone show, Arneill said.

photo by: Shawn Valverde

Summerfest attendees wait for a drone show at the Douglas County Fairgrounds on Wednesday, July 3, 2024. The show was ultimately canceled.

The rain earlier in the week also created some last-minute changes to the show, Arneill said. A lot of the area the drones could have launched from for the show had too much water because of the unusual amount of heavy rain. Additionally, the drone team, a Florida-based company called Light Year Drones, was not able to do as much testing before the show.

In spite of the rain, Arneill said that by the time the drone show was about to start he estimated there was a bigger attendance compared to last year’s show, where he said about 4,000 to 5,000 people attended.

“We understand a lot of people felt let down,” Arneill said. “It was excruciatingly disappointing.”

Arneill said Light Year Drones offered to do a make-up show on Thursday or a different date later in the week, but since the fairgrounds was booked and multiple other events had been scheduled around the holiday, Arneill said the department “decided that just wasn’t realistic” to rebook.

Arneill said because the show didn’t happen, the city has a “credit” with Light Year Drones, and the goal is for the company to do a new show for Summerfest next year. He said the cost of the drone show was $30,000. Last year’s fireworks show cost the city $20,000, he said.