La Jolla has joined a growing trend of Independence Day celebrations switching from fireworks to drones for entertainment. La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club announced on Instagram it will host a unique show with at least 100 drones, starting around 8:45 p.m. on July 4.
The recent Instagram post noted it has been four years since the last Fourth of July fireworks display at La Jolla Cove. COVID, lack of donations, and concerns from environmentalists regarding disrupting sea lions off La Jolla’s coast during their pupping season all combined to nix the community’s annual fireworks display.
“We usually have a barbecue on the beach, and many years ago we shot fireworks off from a barge in front of the club,” said Bill Kellogg, LJBTC president, noting fireworks had to be discontinued because “we were getting overrun by people getting argumentative, unruly and out of control.”
Kellogg noted La Jolla restaurateur George Hauer then picked up the baton and began hosting community-supported fireworks at La Jolla Cove. “We could still see them from here and enjoyed watching Cove fireworks for many years but, that has now stopped,” said Kellogg.
“I took it up with my management team and we thought it would be really cool to try and do a drone show.”
The services of Jeff Stein and his company, Drone Studios, based in San Diego and San Francisco, have been retained by LJBTC to do its drone show. Drone Studios bills itself as “aerial videography specialists who create futuristic aerial animations with extensive experience in documentaries, TV production, video booths, live broadcasting, commercials, promotional marketing, weddings, events, construction, inspections, 3D mapping, photography, Digital rendering, backplates, 8K time-lapses, politics, and real estate. Each project is unique and customized to meet the needs of the client.”
Kellogg said the new drone show will be about 15 minutes adding it should be impressive. “The drones are going to stage from the beach club property, then fly out over Avenida de la Playa, and in front of La Jolla Shores Hotel about 350 feet high. The intent is for the show to be visible from Kellogg Park and, hopefully, also from the Cove.”
Kellogg said the drone show will feature patriotic imagery the likes of 1776 and the American flag and “will be scripted so drones will morph from one image into another.”
Will this become an annual event?
“It will depend on how it turns out this year,” answered Kellogg adding, “We would love to get some community support in terms of donations to defray the cost.”
Kellogg added tax-deductible donations for the drone show should be made to La Jolla Town Council designated for the drone show.
For its first quarter-century, the annual La Jolla Cove fireworks display, begun by La Jolla restaurateur George Hauer in 1985, went almost without a hitch. Then came legal challenges alleging environmental damage to the ocean from the annual coastal, one-day pyrotechnic display.
After Hauer stepped back relinquishing control of the event, it was saved by the formation of a grassroots group, the La Jolla Community Fireworks Foundation. Spearheaded by Deborah Marengo, LJCFF struggled for years to raise the approximately $60,000-plus cost of staging an annual community fireworks display.
La Jolla Village Merchants Association, the community’s business improvement district, took over the fireworks extravaganza in 2015 and had been working with Marengo to keep the event afloat until funding problems caused its indefinite closure. Due to ongoing fundraising issues, La Jolla’s annual pyrotechnic display was finally forced to cancel following the 2017 display.
Ocean Beach, forced to end fireworks launched from its pier due to the structure’s age and damage from seasonal storms, will also hold a Fourth of July drone show this year.
