500 Drones Light Up Navy Pier for ESPN’s WNBA All-Star Weekend Celebration
When the WNBA brought its 2026 All-Star Weekend to Chicago on July 24–25, the league and ESPN wanted something that matched the scale of the moment — a spectacle visible across the city’s iconic lakefront. Hire UAV Pro delivered exactly that, launching a 500-drone light show over Navy Pier on Friday night as part of ESPN’s marquee coverage of the AT&T WNBA All-Star Game.
The performance lit up the sky above Lake Michigan at 9 p.m. CT, synchronized with Navy Pier’s Centennial Wheel — which was illuminated in ESPN red for the occasion — creating a dual visual landmark that drew crowds from across the city. The show celebrated both the All-Star Game and ESPN’s original series Life in the W, with custom animations featuring WNBA branding, player silhouettes, and basketball imagery rendered in full RGBW color across the Chicago skyline. The broadcast reached a national audience on ESPN, putting drone show technology in front of millions of viewers during one of women’s basketball’s biggest weekends.
Chicago: Home Court for Hire UAV Pro
Navy Pier is one of the most recognizable entertainment venues in America, and launching a 500-drone formation over its lakefront required meticulous coordination with venue operations, the FAA, and local authorities. For Hire UAV Pro, Chicago is home turf. The company operates a dedicated crew out of Chicago — one of five regional operations bases alongside Colorado, New York, Atlanta, and Los Angeles — and has executed dozens of shows across the greater Chicagoland area. That local expertise was critical for navigating the airspace restrictions, wind patterns off the lake, and crowd management demands of a venue like Navy Pier during a major national sporting event.
Built for the Biggest Stage
Events like the WNBA All-Star Game don’t come with second chances. The show has to launch on time, look flawless on camera, and operate safely in a dense urban environment — all while millions watch on live television. Hire UAV Pro brought the operational depth that a broadcast-level event demands: FAA Part 107 certified pilots, multi-UAS and night operations waivers, GPS-fenced flight boundaries, real-time telemetry monitoring on every aircraft, automatic return-to-home and fail-safe landing systems, and $5 million in aviation and umbrella insurance coverage. Every drone in the fleet is manufactured with components exclusively from allied countries, and every show is backed by nearly a decade of operational experience across more than 1,000 completed performances nationwide.
From All-Star Weekend to Your Event
The WNBA All-Star show is the latest in a growing roster of major brand activations for Hire UAV Pro, joining previous productions for Boeing, Coinbase, NBC Universal, and Realtor.com. Just three weeks earlier, the company executed 14 drone shows across six time zones over the Fourth of July weekend — from San Diego to New York — demonstrating the kind of nationwide operational capacity that major leagues, networks, and Fortune 500 brands require.
Whether you’re planning a professional sports halftime show, a corporate brand activation, a municipal celebration, or a private event, Hire UAV Pro has the fleet, the crew, and the track record to deliver. Contact us to start planning your drone light show.