Utah’s summer celebrations may have a lot less boom to them in some places, but they aren’t any less dazzling.

Cities across the Beehive State have started ditching fireworks and adopting a more high-tech approach to holidays like July Fourth and Pioneer Day: drone shows.

Salt Lake City will hold a free show Friday at Liberty Park, where 300 drones will soar 700 feet in the sky to give attendees and nearby residents a view of LED designs. Similar shows are slated to mark the holiday in Ogden and Brian Head.

Here is how these shows come together:

Where do the drones come from?

Utah’s capital has hosted drone shows since 2023, after the City Council voted to find fireworks alternatives to celebrate Independence Day and Pioneer Day due to wildfire risk and air quality concerns, said Lynze Twede, an events manager with Salt Lake City’s Public Lands Department.

The city coordinates with a professional contractor that uses drone engineers and software to make flight paths for each drone, Twede said. The contractor, droneshow.com, is based in St. George but performs events across the country.

The drones used in these shows are made for entertainment — they don’t have cameras, just large LEDs to create multicolored designs in the sky, Twede said.

Salt Lake City’s first few drone shows included 150 drones. But as the celebrations have become more popular, the city increased its drone count to 300. The city’s Independence Day display included 500 drones to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary.

How much is a drone show?

The cost of each show depends on the holiday, and since Utah is the only state that celebrates Pioneer Day, the costs for the late-July celebration are much lower, Twede said.

This year’s larger Independence Day celebration came with a total price tag of $95,000, said Jana Cunningham, a spokesperson for the Public Lands Department. This year, $40,000 came from money the city set aside to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary.

For Pioneer Day’s drone show — which will use 300 drones — the price tag is $45,000, Cunningham said.

How are they controlled?

There are not pilots for each individual drone — instead, the drones are programmed with flight paths that are “carefully designed and tested” while certified operators oversee the show, Twede said. When they are launched on site, the drones will automatically use their preset flight paths to form different shapes, like a flag or bald eagle.

The city also needs to monitor the weather and get approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for the show, Twede said. For the Pioneer Day celebration, the city got an exception to fly the drones at 700 feet instead of the standard 400 feet, which will allow more residents to see the show and will give drone operators more room to work with above Liberty Park’s trees.

How are designs chosen?

Twede and other Salt Lake City officials meet with the contractor a few times to talk about designs they would like to see, and they work to make sure those designs are programmable for the drones.

“We want our shows generally to just reflect our community, our local surroundings,” Twede said. “For Independence Day, it was very centered around America 250. … We also, especially for Pioneer Day, generally focus on a uniquely Utah theme with local landmarks, Utah history, and iconic or hyper-local images that really resonate with our residents here.”

When to catch the Salt Lake City show

The Pioneer Day show in Utah’s capital begins at 10 p.m. in Liberty Park.