By Rob Russell

Not a horror movie gone wrong, but a stunning, moving display to remember a horrendous and shocking event in our history. On the evening of Wednesday, 9th September, months of planning culminated in downtown New York, as the sky filled with drones watched by thousands who had gathered to see the unique event.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the destruction of the Twin Towers, it was decided to do something unique, never seen before and very appropriate to the loss of both life and the buildings. After much discussion and input from many parties, we decided to stage a night performance featuring 2977 drones. Why so many drones, you ask? This year is the 25th anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Centre, and each drone signified the loss of one person in the horrendous event that changed the world.

The concept and design involved many discussions with 9/11 victims' families, survivors, and first responders—including Fire Department New York responders Tim Brown and Brenda Berkman, Terry Strada (President of 9/11 Families United), and New York Fire Department families.

The aerial installation was titled “2,977 Lights Over New York Harbour”— and it was designed to recreate the Twin Towers at full scale over the water. It was a collaborative project led by creative director and executive producer Addison Mehr and sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts.

​A massive amount of planning involved several key individuals and organisations:

• ​Creative Leadership & Production: Addison Mehr (Creative Director & Executive Producer).

• 3D Design: Yan Paul Dubbelman.

• Artistic Guidance & Advice: Studio Drift, Shigeru Ban, and Dean Maltz.

• Technical & Drone Execution: Sky Elements Drones (Over the years, Sky Elements Drones has become famous for presenting mass drone displays. Some were at massive sports events - the Monaco F1, as well as at the Space Needle for the Seattle Seahawks. Other famous shows of their drones involved displaying 2400 drones at San Diego Petco Park. So this performance was nothing new to them and well within the Company’s capabilities.)

Technical Execution & Hardware

​The display deployed 2,977 custom light-emitting drones simultaneously launched from Governors Island. The synchronised cluster built a 1:1 full-scale architectural outline of the Twin Towers in the night sky over Lower Manhattan, requiring precision pre-planning and flying to position the lights at the exact height and recreating the actual outline of the original buildings.

Months of planning went into the event and it was produced by Sky Elements in coordination with IDEKO. To have the show, it required complicated federal, marine, and municipal approvals to operate across New York Harbour, taking into consideration all the air traffic constraints. The FAA was involved throughout the planning process and ultimately gave the go-ahead for the spectacular show.

​Designed in collaboration with Yan Paul Dubbelman and artistic advisors Studio Drift, the show began as a moving constellation near the water - the Rising Helix. The drones gathered into a dynamic, upward-circling helix before dramatically locking into the rigid geometry of the Twin Towers. The double-helix flight path explicitly referenced the World Cultural Centre—the unbuilt proposal for the World Trade Centre redesign by the THINK team—symbolising open, breathing latticework rather than solid office blocks.

Unlike standard rapid-sequence light shows, the choreography was intentionally slow-paced to mimic a breathing constellation, maintaining static holding patterns once the towers were fully formed.

Such a stunning display would not be complete without an appropriate musical score. Much research was done to find the music that would complement the display. Eventually, the ​ performance was set to a recorded orchestral score curated specifically for quiet reflection, featuring three key contemporary pieces:

• ​On the Transmigration of Souls by John Adams: This well-known musical score was composed specifically in response to the 9/11 attacks (for which Adams won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Music).

• ​On the Nature of Daylight by Max Richter: Taken from The Blue Notebooks, this score was used for the transitional movement of the lights ascending into position.

• Selected Works by Philip Glass: Used as background whilst the drones were in position and to reflect on the solidarity of the occasion and represent the people that had lost their lives, either inside the buildings or whilst trying to rescue those stuck within the buildings.

The moving memorial flight ended with the drones all descending in a dramatic manoeuvre to symbolise the destruction of the buildings.

The entire event was a very appropriate and dramatic memorial to remember those who had been so tragically lost during the collapse of the buildings.