I Found Jesus at a Drone Show

One September night successful 2025, the luminous look of Baby Jesus appeared successful the entity implicit the Vatican—clearly, verifiably, witnessed by tens of thousands. It was immoderate 2 millennia aft the Book of Revelation prophesied, successful John’s apocalyptic vision, that “he is coming with the clouds, and each oculus volition spot him.” Soon, the representation transfigured into the precocious Pope Francis. In a spectacle astatine erstwhile beatified and cyberpunk, the papal look blazing crossed the Roman entity was pixelated—composed not of divine light, but of drones.

Accompanying the apparition wasn’t a seraphic choir but 2 earthbound mortals, hundreds of feet below, singing “Amazing Grace”: the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and, bejeweled successful golden chains and transverse pendants, the face-tattooed American Teddy Swims. Later to look supra the basilica was a pointillistic rendering of a colossal Pietà, which soon reassembled into the 2 outstretched fingers of Michelangelo’s celebrated fresco. Some members of the assemblage packed into St. Peter’s Square for “Grace for the World”—the archetypal performance ever held connected this beatified ground—wept.

The drone amusement successful the Vatican entity was produced by Nova Sky Stories, a institution owned by Kimbal Musk, younger member of Elon (who, successful a sense, owns the remainder of the entity with his rockets and satellites). One caller day successful San Francisco, Kimbal recounted that nighttime to me. “In a satellite wherever each the spiritual radical are warring each other, it was truly a almighty message,” helium said. Kimbal is the folksier Musk, with his signature cowboy chapeau and aerial of a small-town mayor. He recovered it surreal to beryllium successful a WhatsApp thread wherever Vatican officials and representatives for Pharrell debated creator direction.

You could accidental that the improbable crossover betwixt drones and the papacy has its origins, arsenic these things do, astatine Burning Man. In 2021, erstwhile the lawsuit was canceled owed to the pandemic, Kimbal convinced longtime burners to articulation him successful Black Rock Desert for an unofficial gathering that became known arsenic the Free Burn. Typically, Burning Man ends with the torching of a monolithic human-shaped effigy—the eponymous Man—but that year, the US Bureau of Land Management forbade desert-goers from lighting thing connected fire.

Present astatine the Free Burn was Ralph Nauta, a Dutch creator who works with airy and technology. Kimbal asked if helium could execute a fireless spectacle for the last night, and Nauta obliged. A assemblage gathered connected the playa arsenic Nauta released a swarm of drones that floated implicit the world for a fewer minutes earlier snapping into the dotted contour of the Man. The assemblage gasped, past roared. The fig dilatory raised its arms, turned flame-red, and vanished. “Everyone, including me, we were conscionable successful tears, implicit tears,” Kimbal said. “It was 1 of the astir emotionally almighty moments of my life.”

A twelvemonth later, Kimbal founded Nova Sky Stories; investors successful the company’s latest $50 cardinal circular included the Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, who joined the committee aft witnessing a drone amusement successful 2022 at—where else?—Burning Man. A drone amusement has transformative properties, Kimbal said: “The cynic successful you goes away. It’s similar a mainline to the spiritual center.” He told maine that Pope Leo, who watched the Vatican amusement from a adjacent apartment, passed him a enactment afterward. “His words,” Kimbal said, “were that I made Michelangelo proud.”

Although robotics researchers and autarkic artists had been playing with drones for years (Nauta started experimenting backmost successful 2008), the drone amusement arsenic we cognize it began successful earnest successful 2015. That’s erstwhile Intel, with 100 drones, acceptable the archetypal Guinness World Record for “Most Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Airborne Simultaneously,” upping the ante for performances to come. In 2017, hundreds of drones were flown arsenic a backdrop to Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl halftime show, and contiguous they’re summoned by the thousands astatine taxable parks and Netflix premieres. In 2025, the Rose Bowl replaced its long-running July Fourth fireworks amusement with a drone show, arsenic Napa and Salt Lake City had done successful years prior. It’s harmless to accidental that this year’s solemnisation of America’s 250th day volition diagnostic much drone shows than ever.

I came to the mean arsenic galore do: successful enscreened form, connected my iPhone’s 6-inch display. In the summertime of 2025, Steph Curry was successful China, wherever helium witnessed a Godzilla-sized mentation of himself and a panda bash a slo-mo precocious 5 implicit the skyline of Chongqing. “That’s the wildest happening I’ve seen successful a while,” Curry told the Daily Mail. “5,000 drones going brainsick close now.” As I watched the video connected YouTube, I was baffled by contradictory emotions washing implicit me. My instinct was to motion disconnected what seemed similar a newfangled technological gimmick, but I could hardly incorporate my glee. Next, I saw a video of the characters from KPop Demon Hunters materializing supra Seoul, the metropolis I grew up in. I messaged my parents. Had they seen this? Yes, they said. Have you not seen a drone show?

Even with an untrained eye, I could archer that prime varied. Some animations were clumsy and unimaginative—corporate logos, assemblages of geometric primitives. Others, however, were transcendent visuals, rendered with precision and pomp. There was a Guinness World Record–setting video from China (7,598 drones) featuring a dragon with shining, tessellated scales ample capable to encircle a skyscraper. In Dubai, entity divers flew into a Red Bull tin made of drones. Stranger Things’ Vecna crawled retired of the Las Vegas Strip’s sky. A phoenix whose wings were composed of “pyrodrones”—fireworks attached to drones—released a waterfall of sparks. In Saudi Arabia, drones coalesced into the look of Mohammed bin Salman. Tetris was being played successful the heavens. Nyan Cat was flying successful the sky.

A prudish scholar mightiness kvetch: But aren’t drones weapons of war? Well, weren’t fireworks calved of gunpowder? Perhaps the menace of the mean is portion of what gives it its charge. Here was a formidable technology—something that, if shown successful medieval times, mightiness person turned a raging infidel into the astir ardent believer.

Modern man, it turns out, is conscionable arsenic susceptible.

Kimbal Musk’s Nova Sky Stories whitethorn beryllium the lone drone relation blessed by the Holy Father, but the biggest by amusement number successful America is simply a institution called Sky Elements. One Friday during the heavy of March Madness, I headed to San Jose to ticker Sky Elements hole for 1 of its shows.

The fig of drones flying that time was 1,000. (The outgo of a drone amusement depends connected the fig of drones—currently $150 to $200 per drone.) I was greeted by Preston Ward, Sky Elements’ cofounder, whose look I recognized from a fashionable Instagram relationship helium runs (@thatdroneshowguy) with adjacent to a cardinal followers. Ward was a commercialized litigation lawyer successful a erstwhile life. Underneath his disarming smile, I got the unmistakable consciousness that you’d not privation to spot his look crossed the negotiating table. After all, present was the antheral who convinced the Federal Aviation Administration, successful 2024, to fto him strap fireworks to drones—hence the advent of pyrodrones successful American airspace.

Setting up a drone amusement is simply a labor-intensive, time-consuming affair. Preparation for the 9:15 p.m. amusement started astatine 2 pm, and by the clip I’d arrived, the unit had already unloaded boxes of drones, positive metal-gray ammo cans storing lithium batteries, from an Enterprise semitruck. With the unit bustling astir successful reflective information vests and vigor headsets, the country resembled a tiny airfield. Indeed, drones are classified arsenic craft by the FAA, which requires that amusement operators get a “Part 107 license” for commercialized use.

As the unit began unboxing drones—made by UVify, a South Korean institution and large drone supplier to American operators—I bent to analyse one. It had 4 carbon-fiber arms reaching to propellers colored successful reddish and black, and its opaline integrative assemblage encased the LEDs that would go an illuminated voxel successful the sky. Resting determination successful its crustacean squat, it was oddly adorable.

Nearby stood a heavy-duty tripod with a disc-shaped sensor mounted astatine the top. Called an RTK basal station, it’s a captious portion of instrumentality for immoderate drone show. Standard GPS is close lone to astir 2 to 5 meters, truthful light-show drones trust connected this real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning exertion to broadcast correction signals that let centimeter-level accuracy. I’d received a tract program successful beforehand and noticed that the motorboat pad was encircled by the formation area, followed by a brushed geofence (where drones would instrumentality if they drifted disconnected course) and a hard geofence (where they’d unopen down and abort).

By 6 pm, the drones were laid retired successful a 20-by-50 grid astir a metre apart, batteries inserted into the assemblage but cables not yet plugged in. After a interruption for dinner, the unit lined up connected 1 broadside and marched down each row, connecting batteries 1 by one. I joined successful and plugged the connectors into place. With each transportation came a little physics trill arsenic the drone came to life. The aviator and copilot hunched implicit their laptops, moving last checks connected the formation software. I glanced astatine the aviator checklist—over 60 items.

Ward and I settled into picnic chairs to ticker what had go my astir anticipated portion of a drone show: takeoff. A 1000 opalescent orbs of LED airy came on, and 4,000 propellers started spinning. The drones launched successful 4 sequences of 25-by-10 rectangular formations, each planar portion rising successful blue, red, green, yellow, similar a colorful platform of cards fanning unfastened into the sky. (Each drone, dissimilar the autonomous swarms often utilized by militaries, is not alert of immoderate different drone’s existence. It simply follows its programmed way and comes back.)

A “San Jose 2026” logo was emblazoned successful the sky, followed by a hoops hoop and assorted March Madness–themed shapes, intercut with the sponsor logos (Adobe, Waymo). Sharp astatine a distance, the formations, connected person look, showed a flimsy undulation and sway, possibly from a nighttime wind. I could occasionally spot stragglers uncovering their mode backmost into enactment similar klutzy soldiers. After astir 10 minutes, the drones formed into a choky phalanx for the landing sequence. As they descended, the writer tract rippled. They sent a gentle downwash implicit the ground, knocking implicit an bare h2o bottle.

After talking to a fig of drone operators—small and large, determination and national—I became attuned to a definite play among them, which is to say, the manufacture is not precisely suffused with bonhomie. Some dismissed their rivals’ enactment arsenic “clip art,” others arsenic conscionable bully marketing. I heard the connection “litigious” present and again.

Business models besides alteration widely. Some marque drones, immoderate marque drone amusement software, immoderate enactment connected shows and merchantability software, immoderate merchantability bundle but don’t marque drones—every permutation is represented. Some presumption themselves arsenic artists, portion others are much utilitarian. As 1 enforcement astatine Pixis Drones told me, “We’re a selling bureau first, and we conscionable hap to person a fleet of drones.” Some deliberation “drone show” is an undignified sanction for specified a futuristic medium. Kimbal Musk’s institution prefers “sky stories,” and UVify prefers “cyber carnal content.”

When helium got his FAA waiver successful 2017, the fig of drone operators was successful the azygous digits. But arsenic overmuch arsenic the manufacture has developed, Thorjussen said, it is inactive successful a “carnival relation phase,” a “Wild West benignant of environment” with “hustlers.” One caller ungraded progressive a feline named David Oneal and his institution Wildly Creative Marketing. True to its name, Oneal’s institution defrauded SeaWorld by agreeing to execute a drone show, collecting payment, and past ne'er showing. After a associated probe by the Department of Transportation and the US Secret Service, Oneal was convicted and sentenced to 32 months successful prison.

Thorjussen has spent the past twelvemonth moving to found a information modular for drone shows, lest a large mishap torpedo the young manufacture the mode the Hindenburg did airships. The assemblage is inactive rattled by an mishap successful December 2024, when, during a vacation amusement successful Orlando operated by Sky Elements, drones fell from the entity and, according to a lawsuit, struck a 7-year-old boy, who needed open-heart surgery. (The preliminary study from the National Transportation Safety Board, released successful aboriginal 2025, attributed the origin to a operation of errors.) Thorjussen has enlisted the assistance of ASTM International, the enactment down standards for everything from bungee jumping to overgarment viscosity.

Another sore taxable for the industry: China. The caller Guinness records for astir drones flown—the grounds that matters most—are present each acceptable and breached and acceptable again, often successful a substance of weeks, by China. (At this writing, it’s 33,615 drones.) American reactions to this information scope from dismissal to resignation to admiration. Hayes Walsh of Sky Elements told me, “They’re beauteous overmuch light-years up of america successful presumption of scale.” One of the Chinese companies he’s talking astir is Damoda, whose drones don’t necessitate manually inserting batteries oregon laying them retired successful a grid. Instead, similar idiosyncratic bees coming successful and retired of their hexagonal hive, they motorboat from a charging lawsuit and instrumentality to it.

China besides seems to disturbance concerns astir concern espionage. At slightest 1 enforcement I talked to confessed helium had asked astir astir maine due to the fact that my surname besides exists successful Chinese. I started dropping hints aboriginal successful conversations that I’m Korean.

A week after Sky Elements’ March Madness show, I paid a sojourn to the company’s Texas headquarters, a low, beige gathering successful an bureau park. Preston Ward, the cofounder I’d archetypal met successful San Jose, was waiting adjacent the entrance, wherever a partition celebrated the company’s 16 Guinness World Records (it’s present 17). Though China dominates the numbers game, Guinness—ever generous with categories—still leaves country for niche entries: “Largest aerial show of a currency symbol.” “Of a cowboy hat.” “Of a gingerbread village.”

Past the beforehand office, which looked similar an mean workplace, a backmost doorway opened to a warehouse that was fractional Costco, fractional Boeing hangar: stacks of drone cases reaching the ceiling, workbenches with soldering instrumentality and drone components, a forklift and a commercialized lawnmower parked nearby.

In a hardware country that looked similar a robotics lab, I was greeted by Cameron Ellis, the youthful caput of engineering. He had the speedy wit and breeziness of Ben Whishaw’s Q successful the caller Bond franchise. “I’m an electrical technologist by trade,” said Ellis, who had researched drone swarm exertion successful postgraduate school. “This is my archetypal existent big-boy job, if you privation to telephone it that.”

Ward seemed to beryllium successful a buoyant temper astir thing helium and others had been moving connected since the time before, which was an effort to reply “everybody’s large question”: Can AI regenerate a batch of what they do? In little than 24 hours, Ward explained, an AI cause had already researched what bundle to use, designed a show, and emailed the caput decorator for review. Does it person a name? “Mavrick,” Ellis said. “It’s our ace pilot. Top Gun.” I was introduced to its carnal embodiment: a mini rack the size of a atom cooker—Mac Mini, web switch, video recorder—with neon-pink portion speechmaking “MAVRICK.” (The sanction is besides a motion to MAVLink, a connection protocol for drones.)

We went retired the backmost doorway to the batch down the office. Ten drones were lined up similar archetypal graders astir to enactment connected a endowment show. Mavrick had designed the choreography and had a sanction for each stage—“Ignition,” “Gathering,” “The Shift,” “Pulse Ascent,” “The Bloom,” “Return.” The euphony it chose was “Virtutes Instrumenti,” by Kevin MacLeod, licensed nether Creative Commons (good bot). Mavrick had chosen SkyBrush, the open-source bundle (very bully bot) and acceptable the show’s root latitude and longitude values, configured the geofence and information margins, uploaded amusement data, and tally done each preflight checks. Mavrick reported via Telegram that “all steps are complete. The lone happening near is authorization. I’m not touching that button. That’s your call. 🛸”

Ward hadn’t really planned to enactment connected a amusement successful beforehand of me. But different Telegram connection came through, reminding america that it needed quality authorization. “It’s each connected you, Preston,” Mavrick wrote. How could we resist? Ward authorized it.

One by one, drones launched into the entity to execute what was rather perchance the archetypal amusement ever designed by AI. It was a spot hard to decipher what they were doing, which had thing touchingly endearing astir it. The enactment took a spiral shape, dispersed outward and floated similar glowing pollen, past nucleated into a circular crown and landed.

“That was beauteous good,” I said.

“I’m conscionable blown away,” Ward said. “I started yesterday with a machine that had nary configuration. It had nothing. And nary of the drones deed each other. Nothing crashed. Everything worked. We’re going to beryllium replaced present by AI.”

“I tin spot virtually nary script wherever that goes wrong,” Ellis said.

Witnessing humanity inch yet person to annihilation by drone swarm was a worthy sight. But I wasn’t successful Texas conscionable for that. Weeks earlier, I had called up America’s drone evangelist nonpareil, Sally French, aka the Drone Girl. (She had a drone amusement astatine her wedding covered by The New York Times.) French had tipped maine disconnected that a institution called Aerial Illuminations would beryllium attempting to interruption a Guinness World Record—for the astir drones flown simultaneously implicit the North American sky—in a tiny metropolis southbound of Houston called Manvel. The city’s motto, “City connected the Rise,” had a biblical ringing to it, and the Guinness effort was to instrumentality spot implicit Easter weekend. I felt, you could say, compelled to marque the pilgrimage.

As of the 2020 census, Manvel counted 9,992 people. Since then, it’s go the sixth-fastest-growing metropolis successful America. As of yet, it has nary liquor store but has astatine slightest 15 churches. A fig of them had organized a Christian lawsuit called “JJJ” timed to the world-record attempt. Starting with 5,000 drones and gradually gathering to 10,000, the lawsuit would picture the communicative of Easter implicit 9 days.

On Good Friday, I flew to Houston and headed to Manvel. When I saw a elephantine achromatic cross, 30-plus-feet tall, dangling inexplicably from a operation crane, I knew I’d arrived astatine the tract for JJJ. Clearer inactive were the vinyl banners that spelled retired the event’s afloat name: Jesus Jesus Jesus. Behind the church, drones stretched on, enactment aft row, each 10,000 of them, astir to a vanishing point. The information was robust—an equipped defender stood watch—and the unit seemed tense, serious, unexcited by my presence. With its tents and shipping containers serving arsenic a bid center, the tract looked similar a rebel outpost preparing a guerrilla operation.

Inside the church, I met Pastor Jason, who told maine it was a azygous anonymous donor who paid for this year’s event. The thought for the Guinness effort came past Christmas, erstwhile the religion enactment connected a 1,000-drone show. “Whether you were 5 oregon 95,” Pastor Jason told me, “everybody listened and it was quiescent and it was captivating. And I was like, wow, this is truly a instrumentality to get the connection out.” That night, helium walked implicit to Niro Senanayake of Aerial Illuminations, who was moving the show, and said, “Niro, listen. We person Jesus Jesus Jesus coming up. What’s the record?” The North American grounds was 4,900 drones. Pastor Jason knew helium wanted to interruption it.

He and different pastors had moments of doubt: Is this spectacle truly each necessary? “And I deliberation those are bully questions to ask. But sometimes God does things connected scale. When helium separated the waters for them to locomotion through, helium could person done a puddle,” Pastor Jason said with a laugh. “But it wouldn’t person had the aforesaid effect.” Trying to interruption a drone grounds during JJJ seemed, to Pastor Jason, “just giving the communicative the standard that it deserves.”

5:30 pm. The eighth time of JJJ was astir to begin, and I headed to the lawsuit grounds. Standing successful what I took to beryllium the registration line, I saw radical wearing T-shirts speechmaking “Heaven is my home. I’m conscionable present recruiting” oregon “Jesus Jesus Jesus” oregon “Pray Pray Pray.” When I reached the end, I realized it was a enactment to person a T-shirt. I was handed a Jesus Jesus Jesus successful a medium.

Truth to tell, determination was a antheral who kept catching my eye, idiosyncratic who, arsenic I watched from afar, seemed to person a nimbus of authorization astir him. He was a stout Black antheral of mean height, with a cowboy hat, aviators, and—here’s what spiritually beckoned me—a woody cane, similar Moses. I introduced myself and asked if he’d seen the amusement the erstwhile nights. He had. “Immaculate,” helium said. “Very large storytelling. Sometimes it adjacent looks similar you’re watching a television.”

He said his sanction was Patrick but radical called him Patty G. He was a section pastor, truthful I wasn’t amazed erstwhile helium asked the question I’d been hoping to avoid: “Are you a believer yourself?” I mumbled thing astir a Catholic upbringing but added that I’d gradually, undramatically go nonreligious. “Amen. I’ll archer you this 1 thing,” Patty G said. “Can you archer maine your sanction again, brother?” Sheon. “Brother Sheon,” Patty G said, wrapping an limb astir my shoulder. “No substance what religion you person oregon don’t have, I’m inactive expected to dainty you arsenic your brother. So, astatine the extremity of the day, you’re Brother Sheon.”

The amusement was astir to start. Patty G offered to instrumentality maine to the champion view, wherever a person he’d met the time earlier would beryllium joining us. He commandingly led the mode with his cane. Soon, a achromatic antheral successful a Jesus Jesus Jesus T-shirt introduced himself arsenic Chase. He was 27 and made a surviving assembling inferior vehicles astatine a adjacent shop.

9:50. Still nary drones. People started leaving. It was announced that the adjacent motorboat effort would beryllium astatine 10:15. As Patty G, Chase, and I stood determination swapping stories astir our hometowns, 10:15 came and went. Then a buzz of excitement rippled done the crowd. The amusement was ready. A miracle. Over the speakers: “The largest drone amusement successful the past of North America is happening contiguous close present successful Manvel, Texas, astatine Jesus Jesus Jesus!”

Rarely successful life bash we spot thing genuinely caller for the archetypal time. Is this what Parisians felt erstwhile the Eiffel Tower’s 10,000 state lights lit up successful 1889? What Chicagoans felt erstwhile the White City’s 100,000 bulbs blazed into beingness astatine the 1893 World’s Fair? Heaven knows however galore drone shows I’ve watched online, but ne'er earlier had I felt a visceral, astir cellular effect to one.

In the entity implicit yonder wherever acheronian had pooled, a single, immense furniture of a 1000 drones—spanning the magnitude of a shot stadium—ascended, and the tract was bathed successful light. Then different furniture rose, and another, until 9 layers hovered successful the entity similar a shimmering celestial mille-feuille. It dissolved into a tremulous unreality that resembled a nebula, past re-formed into monolithic letters: “Repent” successful lavish cursive, and beneath it, successful stern artifact capitals, “FOR THE KINGDOM IS AT HAND.” Next, the letters dispersed retired into what became a rectangular tv screen, rendering biblical animation successful dot-matrix style, each drone a azygous pixel of heaven’s jumbotron.

Then, successful an instant: Titanic, godlike hands, each ample capable to adjacent astir a jetliner, materialized retired of the dark. “Oh my god,” I blurted out. Chase glanced sideways and gave maine a satisfied look. Patty G nodded. I tried to picture what I saw, but eloquence escaped me. People had stopped signaling the amusement and lowered their phones. The surrender was total.

Next, the drones assembled into a hazy, cross-like shape, astatine slightest 7 stories tall, which soon crystallized into a fig of the crucified Christ. I had seen a bully fig of iconographies of the crucifixion passim my life, including immoderate astatine the Vatican. But for the archetypal time, I felt it. For real. They truly nailed a feline my property to a woody beam and near him to die. His pain, embodied successful the sky, became palpable. There I was—a antheral from California successful Texas watching drones built successful Korea bring a communicative from Jerusalem to life.

A fewer weeks later, I learned that Jesus Jesus Jesus officially broke 5 Guinness World Records: world’s largest logo, LED screen, QR code, and connection formed of drones, positive the astir drones (66,123) launched successful 1 week. For each the awe I felt that night, my clip successful Manvel didn’t marque maine a believer. But it did permission maine anticipating this Fourth of July, erstwhile skies volition airy up to people the semiquincentennial of this divided and imperiled republic. It whitethorn beryllium the 1 time erstwhile everyone successful America looks, for once, successful the aforesaid direction: up.

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