A 128-year-old American pyrotechnic dynasty embraces drone show technology — discovering a new model for live outdoor entertainment that debunks the tired "drones replacing fireworks" fallacy.

It started with a conversation in a food court in Las Vegas.

Joe Rozzi, VP of Rozzi Famous Fireworks, was walking through the APA's winter conference with his nephew when the question came up: what if they added drones to their Kings Island 50th anniversary show series? Kings Island was an institution for Rozzi — the family had been shooting fireworks there since the park opened in 1972. The 50th deserved something special. Video screens had been discussed and ruled out. Too expensive, too limited in viewing area.

Drones were a different story. But there was a problem. "We don't know anything about drones," Joe told his nephew. "We've never done drones before." His nephew's answer: Chris from Verge Aero is right here.

That hallway conversation — turned phone call, turned contract — set off a chain of events that has since transformed Rozzi Fireworks (aka Rozzi Drones) into one of the most active drone show operators in the midwest. Today, Rozzi flies 91 nights a year at Kings Island alone, is expanding to Six Flags Great America this summer for their 50th anniversary spectacular, and is scaling up two simultaneous drone shows for the 50th anniversary of Cincinnati's iconic WEBN Riverfest on Labor Day weekend — all in addition to a handful of Fourth of July shows commemorating America's 250th birthday. Their fleet has grown from 200 drones to 600, with another 200 on order.

The story of how they got there may be a blueprint for other pyrotechnic display companies watching the sky change.

The Breakthrough: Rozzi's First Drone Show

The turnaround for drones at Kings Island's 50th was absurdly fast. The conversation happened in February, and the debut show was Memorial Day weekend. "It was last minute," Joe says, with the easy understatement of someone who has been managing controlled explosions his entire career. "They came in, I think, the week before. We had to spin ourselves up. We had to find pilots."

Verge Aero's support team — including Joel Robinson, Director of Operations at Verge — were on-site at Kings Island for the first week, walking Rozzi's crew through operations before handing over the reins. Two hundred Verge Aero drones took to the sky alongside fireworks, laser projections, flame effects, and a custom anniversary soundtrack, with actor Barry Williams narrating a tribute to the park's history. The show was, by any measure, a hit; click here to watch the full "Fun, Fireworks, & Fifty" production on the Kings Island YouTube channel.

Kings Island went on to win Park of the Year from Amusement Today. The recurring show was named a top finalist for Best New Show. For Rozzi, the more meaningful result was simpler: they were asked to keep flying drones. What began as a one-time anniversary series became a nightly park fixture. Ninety-one nights per season, running every summer since.

"It became so popular they just kept bringing it back. And then two other parks came on board with their 50th the following year, so we did the same thing."

— Joe Rozzi, VP, Rozzi Famous Fireworks, on incorporating drone shows into multimedia park displays.

The model replicated naturally. When Carowinds in Charlotte and Worlds of Fun in Kansas City reached their own 50th anniversaries, the playbook was established: drones and fireworks, combined into what the industry calls a "nighttime spectacular." The business logic was clear: "What it does for them is it keeps people in the park until close," Joe explains. And it works.

A New Kind of Business Year for Display Companies

For decades, Rozzi Fireworks has operated on the rhythm familiar to every pyrotechnic company: busy summers, a spike around the Fourth of July, and an off-season that required careful management. Drone shows haven't eliminated that cycle — but they've started to fill it in.

Sporting events now include regular drone shows, like when Rozzi flies at Great American Ball Park for Cincinnati Reds games and at fall football games. The WEBN Riverfest, previously a pure fireworks show, has incorporated drones for three consecutive years and is expanding to two simultaneous shows for its 50th anniversary — one on each side of the Ohio River — to cover both the Kentucky and Ohio crowds. University campus events, Christmas shows, and New Year's displays are adding drone components. A corporate event at a country club next month will split its budget roughly 50/50 between drones and fireworks.

Joe says people are starting to see these fireworks shows with drones and ask themselves, 'how do we top that?' "Everyone wants to do the next greatest thing. This is just a natural progression in that direction."

As the internet swarms with videos of multi-thousand-drone shows from overseas, Joe recognizes the demand for more drones in US displays. "A 200-drone show was like, yeah, seen that, done that. So now we've got to do 300, 400, 500. It's the direction it's moving in." Rozzi's fleet is already at 600, with another 200 being held in order by Verge Aero as a fifth park considers a new run of shows this summer.

The 250th Effect — and the Limits of Growth

America's 250th anniversary has been a catalyst. Drone requests have spiked alongside fireworks bookings, and Rozzi has been turning shows down since February. "There's not enough fireworks technicians in this country to cover," Joe says plainly.

His father's advice has never been more relevant. "My father always told me, you have to know when to say when in this industry. Taking on too much is not necessarily a good thing." Rozzi's response has been to protect their existing client relationships first. Customers who've stuck with them over the years aren't going to be bumped for a new booking opportunity down the road.

Demand, though, is telling. Christmas seasons are picking up, as are university and sporting events. Joe is confident the wave of drone show popularity in the US will extend well past 2026. "I think there's still a lot of people who've never seen a drone show live," he says. "You can watch YouTube videos, but there's still enough people who haven't seen it in person that will keep that interest going."

Six Flags Great America: The Next Chapter

This summer brings Rozzi's most complex drone engagement yet. Six Flags Great America's 50th anniversary nighttime spectacular begins June 20th, running 50 nights with 200 drones per show. The catch: the park is situated next to a subdivision, which effectively rules out aerial fireworks for a nightly residency. This show will lean on proximity pyrotechnics, a stage performance with dancers and singers, a parade, and drones carrying the visual weight of the sky.

"It's more of a multimedia show than it is fireworks and drones. It's pyro, stage entertainment, drones, dancers, singers, and a parade."

— Joe Rozzi on Six Flags Great America's 50th anniversary display series

The creative challenge is one Joe finds genuinely interesting. Without a fireworks show to "kick back to," the drone show needs to work harder — more three-dimensional effects, more animated transitions, richer storytelling. It's a different kind of design problem from Kings Island, and one that reflects how much Rozzi's drone capability has matured since that Las Vegas food court conversation.

Meanwhile, King's Dominion in Richmond is adding 30 nights of shows starting right after the Fourth, incorporating a stage show, parade, and aerial show. The parks are watching each other. "It just seems like a natural progression," Joe says. "The parks decided, hey, this thing works."

Riverfest at 50: A Full Surround-Sound Experience

The WEBN Riverfest is, in Joe's words, "not an event that had a fireworks show. Fireworks are the event." When the idea of adding drones first came up, he was again skeptical. "I just wondered — I'm not sure if it's a good idea."

Three years of shows later, Joe can't argue with the success and popularity of the drones-and-fireworks lineup. The drones fly before the fireworks begin, warming up a crowd of 500,000-plus along the Ohio River before the main event. This year, to mark the 50th anniversary, Rozzi is launching two identical shows simultaneously — one from each bank, about a half-mile apart — so every viewer on both sides of the river gets their own immersive experience. On September 6th, the crowd will be surrounded not just by the drones but by fireworks rising from the river, shooting off bridge decks, and cascading from building rooftops.

"I think people will feel really immersed in this event," Joe says, teasing that the drone sequences will help introduce the panoramic experience and build anticipation before the fireworks launch.

Technology That Keeps Up

Running drone shows at this scale — nightly, in outdoor conditions, with paying crowds — demands hardware that doesn't fail. Joe is direct about the practical improvements Verge Aero's X7 has brought to Rozzi's operation. The on/off switch is a running example. "You would think something as simple as that would make such a big difference, but it actually literally will cut our setup time significantly."

On the design side, Verge Aero's Design Studio has streamlined the client collaboration process — particularly with corporate entertainment clients like Six Flags, who are deeply involved in the creative. "It has streamlined those efforts," Joe says. "It's a great tool because it makes it a lot easier for them to communicate what they would like to see changed or tweaked or tuned up." The integration with Finale 3D — industry-standard fireworks design software — means Joe's team can design drone and pyro elements in the same environment, a workflow that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

What Fireworks Companies Get Wrong About Drones

Joe Rozzi was skeptical once. He grew up in fireworks (literally — his father would drop him at Kings Island with a few dollars for ski ball while he shot the show). When drones started generating buzz, the concern in the pyro world was that they'd replace fireworks. He's watched colleagues chase that fear and seen it evaporate.

"[Drones] have a purpose, they have a place — and so do fireworks. And if you could put the two of them together and make that the next thing, now you've got something."

— Joe Rozzi, Rozzi Famous Fireworks

For other pyrotechnic companies considering the move, his advice is straightforward: if you can make the investment, do it. And if you can't, find a partner who already has drones and offer the package together. "I would strongly suggest it."

Joe is candid about display pricing: the premium rates that early drone shows commanded — built around high-profile corporate clients — don't translate to the municipalities and regional venues that make up most of the fireworks industry's customer base. Rozzi's approach has been to keep drone show pricing "very, very reasonable," in line with what clients already expect to pay for a bigger fireworks show. The goal is repeatability: a price point the client feels good about, comes back for, and can sell to their own sponsors and partners.

"A client like the Reds has to sell that to an advertiser, to one of their corporate partners," he explains. "They've got to make money on it. So it has to make sense for that corporate partner to want to spend that kind of money. We try to make it affordable for the common corporation to be able to do it."

Drones and Fireworks: What Comes Next

Joe Rozzi's world is still deeply rooted in fireworks — the timing, the crews, the relationships built over decades. But he's paying attention to what's happening at the edges of the industry, and he sees a generational shift coming.

"There's going to come a time in the next few years where you're going to have people who, all they've ever done was drones and fireworks," he says. "A drone person figures out how to work with fireworks. A fireworks person figures out how to work with drones. Now you've got this next generation." He knows drone shows will keep growing in scale — "more pixels means more detail" — and thinks the industry will continue to generate genuinely surprising creative work.

For Rozzi Fireworks, the question is the same one it's always been: how do you take care of your current clients while building for the future? The drone program is part of the answer. Not a replacement for 128 years of pyrotechnic expertise, but an extension of it — a new layer of offering for clients who've been with them for decades and new clients who've never seen anything like what's possible when fireworks and drones share the sky.

"That's what drones are able to do for us," Joe says. "It gave us a different level, a different layer of offering. And as the business owner who has to see through the future — what do I have to do now to make sure five years down the road is secured? I think growing this program, continuing its movement, recruiting more pilots, looking at what's trending and evolving it — that's basically how I see things going."

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Rozzi Famous Fireworks has been lighting up Ohio's skies since 1895. To learn more, visit rozzifireworks.com. Catch their drone + fireworks shows this summer at Six Flags Great America (June 20–Labor Day) and at the WEBN Riverfest on September 6th in Cincinnati.