Singaporean New Year

Drone sky sculpture 

Landing in Singapore on New Year's Eve, we went to the waterfront to catch the celebrations. An unbroken crackle of explosions and smoke-drenched sky filled the hour up to midnight, as most of the display occurred before the big moment.  One remarkable innovation was "drone-art" - a coordinated flight of 500 drones fitted with extrordinarily bright multi-coloured lasers, that could build multiple sky pictures with the touch of a computer button. This included running athletes, flying swans, and all manner of imaginative figures and geometries. Finally, as the critical time approached, the drones took on the form of a giant sky-clock, counting down the minutes and seconds to local midnight with we in the large crowd adding audible accompaniment with skillful subtractive arithmetic. The fireworks reached a brief crescendo that would not have been out-of-place in Mosul. Finally the new decade had arrived, and with a delay of just an hour or two, we were able to reach the hotel and crash out to recover.

Happy New Year 2020 Singapore