32 W E S T W O R D S u m m e r G u i d e 2 0 2 6 westword.com Drone on the Range COLORADO TAKES ITS 150TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION TO NEW HEIGHTS WITH STORIES IN THE SKY. BY KRISTEN FIORE Tom Dolan has been flying drones for nearly twenty years. But it took a 2022 Imagine Dragons concert at Dick Sport- ing Goods Park to turn that passion into a business. “They put on this phenomenal fi reworks display during the concert. It was so cool,” Dolan remembers. When he emerged from the show, though, “the whole fi eld behind Dick’s was on fi re. I was like, ‘There has to be a better way.’” Turns out, there was...and Colorado was ready for a more environmentally-friendly outdoor light show. After the Imagine Dragons concert, Dolan started his drone show company, Brightfl ight, with modest plans to create shows for weddings and small corporate events. “But we quickly learned that Colorado was really wanting a premier drone show company,” Dolan says. “So as the demand increased, we increased our fleet. We fly 95% of our shows right here in Colorado. We’re quickly growing. We went from me and six to eight part-time employees; now we have three full-time employees and thirty part-time employees.” The drones themselves cost $1,000 each, and Brightfl ight has more than 800, most stored in the company’s offi ce and warehouse space about fi ve miles north of downtown Denver. Brightfl ight fl ies Denver’s annual July 3 Indy Eve drone show, has done shows for the Broncos and the Avalanche, has created halftime shows for CU and CSU and was responsible for Visit Denver’s Mile High Holidays drone show — 41 nights of holiday-themed drone animations visible over downtown and other parts of central Denver from November 21 to December 31. It was a big mission, and now Dolan and his team are part of an even bigger one: Brightfl ight was chosen to create more than forty unique drone shows across the state this year to tell the story of Colorado for the CO150 celebration marking Colora- do’s 150th birthday and the nation’s 250th. Stories in the Sky is one of twelve signa- ture initiatives developed by the America 250 - Colorado 150 Commission, including 150 oral histories, new historic markers, statewide storytelling, a digital Colorado passport and more. The fi rst show was on Jan. 22, during Ouray’s Ice Festival, with subsequent displays everywhere from Steamboat Springs and Estes Park to Den- ver and La Junta. “The Stories in the Sky statewide series combines storytelling, Colorado-themed visuals and dazzling technology to honor our history, landscapes and culture,” says Timothy Wolfe, America 250-Colorado 150 commission co-chair and Colorado Tourism Offi ce director. “Family-friendly and shareable, these shows let Colora- dans experience a unique, memorable celebration while uniting communities across the state in this once-in-a-lifetime commemoration.” Since drone shows are still relatively new, Dolan recognizes that these CO150 displays will be the fi rst time many people will experience a drone show, and he wants to demonstrate just what drones have to offer. “We’re massively proud,” he says. National drone companies also bid for the job, but it only made sense to choose a Colorado outfi t for shows celebrating Colorado. “Versus some of these national companies that I know they received bids from, we had that unique advantage of being here in Colorado,” Dolan says. “And we’ve worked with a handful of these cities, communities and events already, so we have really great pre-established relationships.” Which is good, because after getting FAA airspace authorizations, permits and other logistics out of the way, Brightfl ight works with offi cials and event organizers in each locale to fi gure out exactly what kind of stories in the sky it wants to tell. Every ten-minute CO150 drone show is comprised of a fl eet of 500 drones and starts with a general history of Colorado — beginning with the dinosaurs and mov- ing to indigenous heritage, coal and silver mining, and the creation of Union Station — but each location also gets two minutes of customized local content. “It could be long animations where they’re telling a detailed story about their town, or it could be small things they want to highlight,” Dolan says. Brightfl ight Head of Multimedia Design Chris Probst has the task of creating the animations, typically starting with a line drawing and then bringing it into a 3D animation through a computer program. Not only does he have to take into account how certain colors will appear in a dark sky, but Brightfl ight is also required to keep its drones ten feet apart and moving no faster than 15 miles per hour, which means in many cases, Probst has to program the colors to make the animation appear as if it’s moving fast, even if the drones aren’t. “The main thing we wanted to do with our animations was make sure there’s enough movement and light effects to keep the viewer interested and excited,” Probst says. “People always ask me what’s the hardest part of drone shows, and 100% of the time, it’s this,” Dolan adds. “Flying the shows is the easy part. The hard part is here.” When the animations are complete, the drones are programmed, and the team performs a test A drone show earlier this year in Ouray. BRIGHTFLIGHT
