World’s first drone circus coming to the Netherlands

17 Feb 2015

Amsterdam has been chosen as the first city to host ‘Air’, the world’s first drone circus with aims of becoming a 21st-century version of Cirque du Soleil, except with flying laser battle drones.

Established by the Dutch event planning company Fjuze, the drone spectacular will be orchestrated with the help of the Royal Netherlands Air Force in what appears to be a crossover between the neon-laden film Tron and drones similar to the killer aircraft shown in the Terminator film franchise.

Describing its show as “a collaboration and fusion of music, video, projections and special effects”, the organisers have remained rather scant on details of when it expects to be actually displayed.

However, the Amsterdam Arena with its retracting roof will be the venue sometime this year.

Likewise, prices for tickets are also unknown as of yet, but this hasn’t stopped Fjuze releasing a rather impressive trailer showing off what it expects to have when the show finally makes its debut.

The enclosed arena is likely to be the best option for any similar drone circuses, given that countries are beginning to roll out regulations for commercial drone operation. The US’ Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) yesterday laid out the likely banning of drones that operate out of the operator’s point of view.

In the meantime, Fjuze has released this trailer to whet people’s appetites for Air’s eventual debut.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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