Ducati’s 100th anniversary: designing a 700-drone celebration at Misano
A centenary celebration in the Italian sky
Ducati’s 100th anniversary at Misano Adriatico brought together 700 drones with Giuliani Fireworks' drone division and stunning fireworks from Parente Fireworks.
Star Symphony designed the drone show in our UK studios and drove additional drones to Italy to supplement our partners’ fleet. Giuliani Fireworks held the contract and flew the show, bringing our designs to life for a memorable celebration.
You can watch the full incredible Ducati drone show on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/8SgE_7oNCfk?s...
Designing for Ducati
Ducati’s fans know the brand and care deeply about its history. Our design needed to connect with that audience and do justice to the centenary.
With 700 drones and a display approximately 250 metres wide, we had tremendous scope for detail and movement. Every light had a purpose, whether defining a familiar logo or forming part of a larger image.
In our UK studios, we carefully developed the proportions, transitions and pace, giving each scene time to register while keeping the show moving.
Seeing those designs fill the sky at Misano Adriatico, after spending so long working on them on screen, was a particularly satisfying moment.
From our UK studios to 40°C in Italy
Our contribution continued beyond the design. We drove our drones to Italy to supplement Giuliani’s fleet, bringing the aircraft together for the 700-drone display.
We already knew our Italian partners well, and a project like this shows the value of that relationship. The studio work, the equipment and the preparation on site all needed to come together for the same performance.
Italy gave us some stunning scenery, but it also gave us temperatures reaching 40°C. Working outside in that heat was demanding for the team and the drones, and the teamwork behind the show deserves plenty of credit. The audience gets to enjoy the finished display; the crews also know the effort that went into getting everything ready. For the drones, they are used to operating in hot climates such as Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Nevada, USA, so they took the 40 degree heat in Italy all in their stride!
It was a pleasure to work alongside Giuliani on such a significant occasion, with each team contributing its skills to the result.
All 700 drones, with no gaps in the pictures
One detail we were especially pleased with was that all 700 drones took off, completed the show and returned successfully.
For the audience, that meant complete formations throughout the display. There were no missing points of light leaving gaps in the pictures or breaking up the important Ducati logos. The designs appeared as we had intended them to.
When you are recreating recognisable branding with individual lights, completeness matters. Each drone contributes to the image, and having the whole fleet perform successfully allowed the audience to see every formation in full.
For our designers, it was rewarding to see the finished show fly exactly as planned, with every drone playing its part in the work they had created back in the UK.
An evening we will remember
The response from the crowd was extraordinary. One of our lasting memories is hearing the reaction travel around the stadium as people watched the imagery unfold above them. You can spend a long time reviewing a design in the studio, but hearing an audience respond to it is something else entirely.
Parente Fireworks’ stunning display helped make the evening even more memorable. It was a fantastic occasion to be part of, both as drone show designers and as people who have spent much of our working lives in fireworks.
World Ducati Week at Misano Adriatico is a project we are proud to share because it shows what our UK studio can achieve. Our creative work reached an international audience, our drones helped complete the fleet, and our partnership with Giuliani brought the show into the Italian sky.
The photographs and video capture the scale beautifully. For us, they also bring back the heat, the teamwork and that tremendous sound from the crowd.
