Seattle’s New Year’s Eve show at the Space Needle to include drones

For the first time ever, the New Year’s Eve fireworks display at Seattle’s Space Needle will incorporate drones. It also will be the first in-person New Year’s celebration at Seattle Center since 2019.

Sky Elements, a Texas-based drone light show company, will launch 200 drones, according to a Space Needle news release. The drones’ formations are designed to complement the fireworks and light displays.

The drones will fly 200 to 600 feet high, directly north of the Space Needle, according to the release.

New Year’s Eve festivities at Seattle Center will begin in-person at 8 p.m.

T-Mobile’s New Year’s at the Needle will kick off with two choreographed light shows at 10 and 11 p.m., “emitting brilliant colors and beams of light across the night sky,” the Space Needle said.

Radio listeners can tune into the light show’s audio simulcast on iHeart radio station HITS 106.1.

To watch the show from home, tune into KING5 on TV or stream the show online at king5.com starting at 11:35 p.m.

New Year’s at the Needle’s 11-minute drone, light and fireworks show will kick off at 11:59 p.m., choreographed to a playlist celebrating big music and pop culture moments of the year, the Space Needle said.

Live fireworks returned last year after a two-year hiatus, although crowds were not allowed to gather at Seattle Center. In 2020, due to the pandemic, New Year’s at the Needle used sky-mapping technology and video footage to present a virtual light show broadcast on television. In 2019, there were no fireworks for the first time in nearly 30 years due to high winds, though a laser show rang in the new year.