Watch Shanghai’s incredible New Year’s Eve drone show

Increasingly, New Year’s Eve fireworks displays are being reconsidered by cities large and small across the world.

For one, they’re a fire hazard — that’s the reason wildfire-stricken Australia has eschewed them recently. They also emit smoke and particulate matter, an area of concern for pollution-plagued places like China and India.

This year, Shanghai opted for a stunning alternative: drones.

Over 2,000 drones took the skies on Tuesday night, illuminating the sky above the Huangpu River with moving lights. In one configuration, they became a running man. In another, they counted down the seconds until midnight.

The drones, fitted with multi-coloured lights, were controlled not by individual drone pilots, but by a central computer which can program them to fly around in any conceivable pattern.

Check out the celebratory drone display below.

News from SFGate