CENTRAL PARK, Manhattan (PIX11) — There was a drone murmuration in Central Park.
If you do not know what that is, you are not alone. A murmuration is a flock of birds, usually starlings, flying together.
This time, it was 1,000 drones acting like birds and it was a real New York moment as thousands of people watched.
The event was called Franchise Freedom.
More than 1,000 drones with lights danced across a cloudy sky above the lake in Central Park. To some, it was like a choreographed ballet of lights. Others called it a group of fireflies that got together with a plan.
“It was a beautiful New York event,” Bruce Sapados, a spectator, told PIX11 News. “It was a community event. It was so calming. It was beautiful. It was artistic. All public art events should be like this in the future.”
“It was a great night,” Yolanda Leger, a spectator, said. “It was like watching birds at night.”
The people behind Franchise Freedom, an Amsterdam artistic duo called Studio Drift, say it is the largest public art project in Central Park since the gates in 2005.
“If you observe birds swarming and swooping — a murmuration — you wonder if birds are free or are they bound by rules,” Lonneke Gordijn, Studio Drfit Artist, told PIX11 News. “And humans, are we free of bound by rules?”
There were three six-minute shows timed to music on an app.
While some spectators were annoyed by how brief the shows were, others found what was really magical was the silence and “Oohs” from the crowd of New Yorkers and tourists coming together for a free outdoor art installation.
