If you have never booked a drone show before, the process is simpler than most event vendors make it sound. There are three steps, and only one of them needs anything from you.
The three steps
Request a quote. Tell us the date, the venue, and what the night is for. We recommend a drone count, talk through what is achievable, and come back with a quote within days.
Approve the concept. We design the show and render it in full (the actual shapes, movements, and transitions your audience will see) before anything goes to programming. You can request changes at that stage. Nothing gets programmed until you have signed off on what you have seen.
We fly. Choreography, permitting, airspace coordination, logistics, crew, and show night are all ours.
How far ahead to start
There is no fixed minimum. Each date is assessed for feasibility: the date itself, the venue, the creative scope, and any airspace or city approvals it needs. Tell us your date and we will tell you what it takes.
Peak dates (July 4th, New Year's Eve, holidays) carry higher pricing and fill earlier, so start those conversations sooner. There is no deadline to beat and no seasonal cutoff. You simply have more choice on timing, scale, and design the earlier you ask.
What the venue needs to offer
A clear, flat area for staging and launch, and sightlines from wherever your audience will actually be standing. The launch footprint scales with the size of the show, and the real requirement is assessed per venue rather than quoted from a table; we walk the site before the date.
Two things worth knowing up front. Drone shows are night shows, outdoors: darkness is what makes the formations read, so there is no daytime or indoor version of the format. And we never fly over crowds or open roads, so audience areas and flight areas stay separate by design.
What is included, and what is not
Included in every quote: creative development and a fully rendered pre-visualization, show design and programming, two licensed pilots plus technicians and on-site production crew, $5M+ event-specific liability coverage, FAA authorizations and city or county permitting, crew travel and lodging, music synchronization, and on-site setup and teardown. All show-related costs are in the quote.
Priced separately: a media package, scoped on its own, plus managed media campaigns, repeat shows, and pyrotechnics.
What effects need what show size
Drone count is the primary cost driver, and it is also what determines what the show can physically do. Shows run at 100, 200, 300, 500, 750, 1,000, and 1,500 drones. Minimal 3D formations need 200. A scannable QR code needs 300, so if a QR code matters to your campaign, raise it in the first conversation, because it shapes the whole show plan. Aerial screen projection takes 500+: the drones hold a large grid and light up like pixels, so imagery or video plays across it like a screen in the sky.
Questions worth asking any drone show company
Are your pilots licensed, and how many are on the crew? What insurance do you carry, and can you name our venue as additional insured? Who handles permitting? Will I see the show before it is programmed? Do you fly over the audience? And who will I actually be talking to between now and show night?
That last one is the question we would push hardest on. There is no project-manager layer here: you get direct access to the team assigned to your flight, through to show night. That holds at every show size, from 100 drones to 1,500.