Blackpink, Björk wow fans with drone shows at Coachella 2023

The 2023 edition of Coachella has already made its mark in history for featuring the most diverse and inclusive artist lineup yet for the music festival. But we at DroneDJ will remember Coachella 2023 as one where iconic Korean girl group Blackpink and eclectic Icelandic singer Björk turned to drone light shows to make their sets even more unique and unforgettable.

Blackpink, which is headlining Coachella 2023, roped in drone show specialist SKYMAGIC to light up the main stage with 500 LED-equipped drones.

The Singapore-based company put on an eight-minute spectacle for its US debut show, beginning with the Coachella Ferris wheel and celebrating precious art installations from previous editions, including the spaceman and the butterfly.

“Coachella just got a little brighter… We officially flew over the main stage at Coachella tonight, channeling the electric energy of the festival high into the stars, before introducing Blackpinks’s incredible set!” said SKYMAGIC. It added, “It’s a huge honor to have created a show which celebrates the evolution of art at Coachella, amplified by a custom soundtrack by On The Sly Production.”

Björk, meanwhile, used the services of Amsterdam-headquartered Drone Stories.

The singer-songwriter took to social media to say, “I wanted to share with you excitedly that I was joined with 864 drones tonight!!! As you probably know I am touring with two very different concerts these days, Cornucopia: very complex, with tons of screens, bespoke instruments, and celebrates the techno side in me… [And] the show tonight was orchestral which is me, all about simplicity, only conductor. Bjarni Frímann and the orchestra played a selection of my songs. So, in honor of the Coachella magnificent festival (I played here first 21 years ago pregnant) I asked a drone company to join us. I have always been very interested in digital notation and the abstraction of tonality being visual so hopefully, the audience got slashes of synesthesia while watching. Came with the theme of shapes… we wanted to do architectural and biological movements, curves… I do hope you enjoyed it.”

Read: Drones worth $100K plunge into river at Australia light show

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