Liberty Park drone show draws crowds

Salt Lake City is celebrating Pioneer Day with double the drones at its drone show at Liberty Park this year. Event staff report having 300 drones, double the number from last year. 

This year’s event has also taken significant planning. Cali Holcombe, event coordinator for Salt Lake City Department of Public Lands, said they started planning for this drone show about six months ago. 

“People love to celebrate the founding and celebrate the pioneers that crossed the plains to be here and the joys and the beauty of what it is like to live in Utah,” Holcombe also said. 

Some have been enjoying Utah drone shows for years, Lucas Villalobos grew up attending drone shows in Utah sporadically since he was a kid. He told ABC4, “A whole group of us, probably 25 of us, as kids. We’d get an ice box and come down the hill right there.”

Villalobos also brought his daughter to experience the show for the second time. Isabella Villalobos, his daughter, said, “The Drones did the American flag and flew around so fast, and it’s so cool.”

Lucas Villalobos hopes this long-standing tradition will be passed down for generations to come. 

“It’s a tradition and I’m trying to keep it alive and pass it to my kids and see how I grew up,” Villalobos said.