A multimedia show that closed on Sunday night the 33rd edition of the Sibiu International Theatre Festival (FITS) was the most complex so far in the city, with 420 drones synchronised with lights, music and stagecraft, gathering for a quarter of an hour thousands of Sibiu residents and visitors around the Radu Stanca National Theatre House in the city, show official Madalin Preda told AGERPRES.

'It is by far the most complex show we have stagede in Sibiu. We had 420 drones in the air - the highest number so far - but innovation is not just in numbers. The whole show is a multimedia experience: the movement of the drones is synchronised with 30 beams of lights on the ground, with the music and with the stagecraft of the festival,' said Preda.

According to him, the story was built differently now, without breaks.

'Creatively, we've completely changed the way we tell the story. Whereas in the past years the images followed one another through classical transitions, this year we built a fluid choreography: a part of the previous image remains suspended in the sky and naturally transitions into the next. There are no more breaks, the story flows organically, as a single uninterrupted frame,' explained Preda.

The images projected into the sky were inspired by the theme of this year's edition of FITS, 'Soul', and included silhouettes of artists, dance moves and symbols of childhood and connection between people.

'While the opening show was the beginning of the journey, the closing one represents the last chapter. (...) For us, the 'soul' cannot be translated by a single static symbol, but by the sum of these encounters.'

Making such a show takes months of preparation for a quarter of an hour of show in the sky, from designing the visual story to programming and testing each drone.

'We are talking, in general, about a process that lasts several months and involves three major stages. It all starts with the artistic direction, coordinated by our colleague, Nely Borza, together with the team of designers, who translate the theme of the festival into a technologically feasible visual story. Then the appointment comes in. Over the past five years we have developed our own software, which helps us automate complex trajectory calculations and focus on the finesse of the animations. The last stage is the field: equipment calibration, radio communication, system synchronisation and safety protocols. When the public sees the first drone taking off, we already have a long period of tests and simulations behind us.'

Preda added that the main challenge is no longer the technical one, but to find ideas that will surprise the public from one edition to another.

'Paradoxically, the biggest challenge is no longer the technical part. It is to be able to surprise the audience every time and to come up with a better show than the previous year.'

Regarding safety, Preda explained that the shows are organised according to the European aviation legislation, in a space separate from the spectators' area, and each drone is checked before take-off.

'We are in the field of aviation, not in computer-generated graphics. (...) The system is configured with geofence protocols: if a drone loses signal or goes out of parameters, it is programmed to return controlled and land inside our isolated perimeter, away from the public.'

Preda believes that drone shows are gaining more and more ground because they allow the construction of visual stories that are impossible to achieve with fireworks, but without completely replacing them. FITS chairman, actor Constantin Chiriac, has given up fireworks shows in recent years to protect animals and birds and chose drones in the opening and closing of the festival.

'Fireworks have a history of over 2,000 years and a fascination of them. What drones bring extra is narrative freedom. With drones, the sky becomes a huge screen on which you can write messages, draw characters and tell an articulated story, different at each event,' Preda said.

'This year's theme is Soul, and we believe that technology has the greatest value when it manages to convey emotion. If, at the end of the show, people leave smiling or hug their child or the person next to them, then it means that we have done our job. After all, drones are just a tool. What really remains is the emotion,' concluded Preda.

The drone show could be seen in Sibiu only twice a year, at the beginning and end of FITS.

FITS brought together for ten days, over 5,000 artists from 83 countries and offered the public 848 events, eight more than in the previous edition.

The National News Agency AGERPRES was a FITS media partner. AGERPRES (RO - Editing by: Isabela Paulescu; EN - writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)