Coventry City of Culture: Special drone show caps off weekend of celebrations
Multiple events had been taking place.
The second of four big celebration weekends to mark the end of Coventry’s tenure as UK City of Culture 2021 saw an audience of over 27,000 witness a record-breaking display of 360 drones in a stunning celebration of art and nature.
Our Wilder Family by the UK’s premier drone art company Celestial, was a unique one-off free event that took place in the city’s War Memorial Park, and was streamed to audiences worldwide on the Coventry City of Culture website.
The special display, commissioned by the Coventry City of Culture Trust, was a record-breaking 16-minute-long event where drones were used as pixels to create a spectacular light show.
Coventry, known as the 'Phoenix City', is proud to rise against climate change and raise awareness to encourage action. The show was visible from up to 2.5km
Celestial and the Coventry City of Culture Trust also partnered with City Voices and schools across Coventry to create the display with BAFTA and Ivor Novello Award-winning Composer Dan Jones and Guy Hughes who assembled the score in collaboration with communities and poets in Coventry.
The new musical score featured the voices of children from Templars Primary School in Tile Hill, and environmentalists from Warwickshire Wildlife Trust.
Narration came from Coventry 2 Tone legend Pauline Black, reading new poetry from Bohdan Piasecki - based on the words of four Coventry City Voices poets Kim Hackleman, Navkiran Mann, Diana Roor and Paul Tafaro.
Our Wilder Family was commissioned by Coventry City of Culture Trust as part of its #GreenFutures programme in partnership with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund.