--- title: "Christmas Drone Show for Children Ends Flops Pathetically" description: "A Rudolph-themed drone show was a major disappointment for English families who braved a muddy swamp to attend." date: "2025-12-07" modified: "2025-12-07" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/christmas-drone-show-britain" categories: - "Drones" - "Future Society" - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" --- # Christmas Drone Show for Children Ends Flops Pathetically ![A Rudolph-themed drone show was a major disappointment for English families who braved a muddy swamp to attend.]() *Katie Helen via Facebook* Christmas magic fell a little flat this week when a holiday drone show in the English town of Haywards Heath flopped, with the company behind the production suffering "technical difficulties." According [to the *BBC*](), the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Drone Show, put on by Lumina Sky Theatre, was advertised as a "state of the art production" with "600 LED drones." Instead, families who traveled from far and wide to attend were disappointed when the final product contained just a fraction of the drones promised. "I looked at the website and there were going to be 600 drones," one attendee told the *BBC*. "I could only make out about 50 drones and the images that came up were very unclear. A lot of the parents were leaving after five minutes." After the fact, disgruntled parents took to social media to share their efforts to demand a refund. In one Facebook group, [Sarah Monckton]() posted photos she took of the dismal show to demand her money back: ![A few LED drones against a bright blue light make up a confusing holiday display, with obvious gaps in the image.]() Sarah Monckton via Facebook ![A few blue, red, and yellow LED drones make up a confusing holiday display, with obvious gaps in the image.]() Sarah Monckton via Facebook Though the event was supposed to last 25-30 minutes according to [Lumina's website](), attendees told UK press it only lasted about 15. "From the beginning, large numbers of drones were missing, which left huge gaps in the formations and made it nearly impossible to understand what the images were even supposed to represent!" one attendee wrote on social media, [per *The Guardian*](). "The 'finale,' the moment the entire audience was waiting for, didn't even happen. Just a black sky." On top of an unintelligible performance — which cost some families "hundreds of pounds" to attend, according to *The Guardian* — guests were mortified at the state of parking lot, which Lumina had decided to [charge a fee to enter]() at the last minute. "It was that awful, it took us an hour to get into the car park, which wasn't suitable, it was just a field," one attendee told the *BBC*. "We were muddy, there were no signs, it was just awful." Horribly underwhelming Christmas events are becoming something of a holiday tradition in the UK. As *The Guardian* recounts, there's been no shortage of previous blunders, including 2014's "[The Magical Journey]()," a 90-minute "immersive experience" which guests likened to a "waiting area at an airport," or 2019's "Christmas Grotto," in which parents had to spend over [£2,000 at the store Harrods]() if their kids wanted any hope of seeing Santa. And though it wasn't technically a holiday event, few can forget 2024's "[Willy's Chocolate Experience]()," the iconic AI-generated fiasco that flopped like perhaps no family experience has before. So while it sucks to waste your time and money on an event like this, families across the UK could consider it a rite of passage — a grand, muddy, tradition of Great Britain. **More on drones:** *[Delivery Robot Torments Disabled Man]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()