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Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival to host first ever drone show
The drone show, which replaces the former balloon glow, will close the festival’s first day Thursday night
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The 2025 Freedom Festival is kicking off eight days of patriotic celebration Thursday. The first day will feature a new attraction for the 42-year old Freedom Festival: a drone show.
Starting at 5 p.m. Thursday, the event will offer kids’ activities, food trucks, and musical performances by School of Rock and BirdChild. The drone show is scheduled to begin at 9:45 p.m.
The show, performed by Nebraska-native Fantasy Drone Shows, replaces the balloon glow, an event the festival decided to cut this year, said Brittany Barnhart, Freedom Festival’s executive director.
Featuring 300 individual drones, the 14-minute show will close out the festival’s first night with patriotic imagery and Iowa-specific designs, though Fantasy Drone Shows Operations Manager Brian Anderson declined to share most details so as not to spoil the show.
“Obviously, it's a freedom festival,” he said. “And so you've got a lot of patriotic stuff, but we also have some things that will tip a hat to Iowa as well.”
Ideas for the show were provided by Freedom Festival staff and choreographed by one of three designers Fantasy Drone Shows has on staff. Anderson said designing shows takes around two weeks of full-time work by one designer.
The five-person team working the drone show includes a computer-bound pilot and visual observers who ensure the drones are flying in their correct paths. The trick lies in the fact that each drone is unaware of the presence of any other drones; the company employs GPS programming so each drone finds its mark. Rare mishaps require an attentive crew.
Drones are positioned at a makeshift launchpad and sent up with around 14 minutes of battery before returning safely to the ground.
The price to stage a drone show is, generally, $150 to $200 per drone, not including other extraneous details, which the company prices individually, said Anderson, who did not share the exact price paid by the Freedom Festival for Thursday’s show.
The Freedom Festival drone show is one of eight the company is performing in places spanning the country over the next two weeks of Independence Day celebrations, from Long Island, New York to Artesia, New Mexico.
In addition to the Cedar Rapids show, Anderson said a show will be performed at the Iowa State Fair, among other locations.
“We're really excited to come to Cedar Rapids, and we're excited that they've reached out to us,” he said. “Iowa has been really good to our company.”
If you go
When: Thursday, June 26, 5-10 p.m.
Where: Tuma Sports Complex, 3239 C. Ave. Ext., Marion
Price: The cost is $20 per car, or proof of two Freedom Festival buttons
Parking: If the parking lot is full, additional parking and a shuttle service will be available at Epic Event Center, 2987 Epic Dr., Marion
Schedule: Events begin with kids’ activities and food trucks at 5 p.m. Live music will be performed by School of Rock (at 5:15 p.m.) and BirdChild (at 6:30 p.m.). The drone show will begin at 9:45 p.m.
Comments: 641-691-8669; evan.watson@thegazette.com
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