Malaga's annual summer fair opens in style as drone and fireworks spectacular lights up the night sky

In style. This is how Malaga opened its 2024 summer fair on Friday, which will last for eight days and where the city is transformed to become the epicentre of joy and entertainment. The night sky was the main backdrop at the start of the annual 'feria'. Thousands of people gathered on the city's beaches, promenades, terraces and elevated areas of the city to enjoy the light show with drones and fireworks that welcomed a celebration that has become a great festive reference in August in Spain.

As a novelty this summer, compared to previous years, the official events began in the afternoon with the revived historical cavalcade that wound its way through the streets of the city centre recreating the episode of the handing over of the keys of the city to the Catholic Monarchs in 1487. In this Malaga where tradition and the avant-garde coexist in harmony, the journey through a piece of the city's history was followed by the modernity represented by the drones and the classic fireworks shows launched from the access road to the cruise terminal in the port.

It was ten minutes to midnight when the drone light show took to the sky, presented by Umiles - Drone Light Show, a company from Madrid that specialises in unmanned aerial systems and which put 280 drones into the air simultaneously to extend the radius of action from where they could be seen by the people of Malaga.

This show, which for the third consecutive year is part of the programme of the festivities and which combines cutting-edge technology with visual art, lasted ten minutes. In that time the aircraft drew up to a dozen three-dimensional images visible from a distance of half a kilometre and replicated up to 16 million different hues of colour.

The drones flew at a height of 100 metres within a security perimeter, so at no time were they over areas where people were present.

Once these unmanned aircraft had drawn their last images in the sky, the Malaga night was illuminated by the pyromusical show put on by the specialised company Piroctecnia Zaragozana. For twenty minutes, 6,245 fireworks with a gross mass of more than one tonne were launched and half a tonne of gunpowder was lit.

It was a visual spectacle that was musically accompanied by the songs: Yo Soy Aquel (Raphael), Como Yo Te Amo (Gloria Trevi), Nena (Miguel Bosé and Paulina Rubio), Rey del Glam (Nancys Rubias), Ni Tú, Ni Nadie (Fangoria), Tierra (Chayanne), Las 12 (Ana Mena and Belinda) and I Like It (Enrique Iglesias).

The show was followed by, among other authorities, by the mayor of the city, Francisco de la Torre, accompanied by the councillor for Festivities, Teresa Porras. The councillor took the opportunity to invite locals and visitors alike to enjoy "the wonderful, open and hospitable city of Malaga, more than ever during the fair".

De la Torre stressed that during the "it is time to have a great time" and emphasised the "extraordinary sense of warmth that we have in Malaga for the people who visit us". "It is a time to meet friends, family, those who, perhaps, for some time have not seen each other," said the mayor, who encouraged people to use public transport, respect timetables and not contribute to spreading false information.