Is This the 'Next Generation Firework Show'?

The booms of fireworks were missing from various towns in drought-wracked states over the Fourth of July, but that doesn't mean there wasn't celebration in the skies. To avoid the risk of wildfires, towns in California, Colorado, and Arizona turned to drones for entertainment. In Carefree, Ariz., the Civana Resort called its free drone display the "next generation firework show," per Business Insider. "Now we have technology that allows us to do precision animation and storytelling—we can write words and draw objects in the sky," the head of Intel's drone group adds, per USA Today. You're not too late to catch a show: After a Wednesday wind delay, 500 drones will arrange themselves into a giant American flag, plus other icons, at California's Travis Air Force Base on Thursday. (More Fourth of July stories.)