State Garden Show

Neuss

For the 2026 State Garden Show in Neuss, Lunatx SFX created a distinctive aerial production with 732 synchronised LED drones, combining nature, fantasy and visual storytelling. Under the title “The Secret Garden”, the show was conceived not as a conventional sequence of individual drone images, but as one continuous story: a sealed garden gate opens the way into a hidden world, colours come to life, the garden changes as night falls, and the journey ultimately leads through growth, transformation and connection to a green heart.

In collaboration with multimedia artist Klaus Gendrung (modern media).

Music, voice-over, animated drone formations and programmed RGB lighting masts across the site were conceived as one integrated production. The story therefore did not unfold only in the sky: colour impulses and movements of light continued through the audience area, allowing visitors to immerse themselves even more deeply in the “Secret Garden”.

The story does not begin with a logo or an immediately recognisable message – but with a mystery.

A monumental garden gate emerges from the darkness. A keyhole begins to glow, the first particles of light escape, and finally the gate appears to open towards the audience. Visually, the spectators cross the threshold into another world.

Beyond it, a large tree comes to life. Light flows through its trunk and branches, a face becomes visible – and the garden itself begins to speak: “I know places before they have names.”

The voice-over forms the show’s first narrative anchor. At the same time, it refers to the history of the site and to what is now being allowed to grow there: where movement once passed through, something new can take root.

Behind the gate, the first inhabitants of the garden appear. A green dragonfly, a pink butterfly and other luminous insects carry the colours of the State Garden Show into the sky one after another. Their trails of light connect the formations and turn the repositioning paths themselves into part of the choreography. Instead of one motif simply disappearing before the next appears, the movement continues through the sky. Finally, the individual colours come together and the swarm becomes the visual identity of the State Garden Show.

For the first time, abstract colour becomes a specific place. After the logo, the defined shape dissolves again. Colour turns into movement: broad waves travel across the sky, points of light condense and unfold into organic structures. From this abstract world, a large-scale botanical mandala emerges. Floral forms multiply while different layers rotate against one another, creating a kaleidoscopic effect.

At the same time, the RGB lighting masts across the site were individually programmed. Colours and movements from the sky were extended across the ground, so the audience did not simply stand in front of a drone show – they were surrounded by light.

Then darkness falls.

A moon appears. A bat crosses the night while a fluorescent bird spreads its wings. An enchanted mushroom becomes the starting point for a growing spider’s web, from which a large three-dimensional garden spider eventually emerges. An owl and a caterpillar lead the journey deeper into a world that only becomes visible after dark.

This chapter deliberately creates a different atmosphere from the first half of the show: less daytime garden, more bioluminescence, hidden creatures and mysterious movement.

Here, the drones become more than points of light: they turn into animated characters. Wings beat, legs move and bodies pulse, transforming the sky for a few minutes into a nocturnal habitat of its own.

Fireflies emerge from small points of light. They gather at the centre of the sky and become a spark between two monumental hands – inspired by the almost-touching fingers in Michelangelo’s “Creation of Adam”. The fingertips never quite meet. What matters is the space between them.

From this spark, the show enters its final transformation: a closed lotus blossom opens and a butterfly emerges from its petals. A water lily blooms. A dandelion releases its seeds into the wind.

The idea of carrying life forward ultimately becomes growth. An enormous green vine rises through the sky, unfolds leaves and forms itself into a heart.

The Green Heart forms the visual and dramaturgical destination of “The Secret Garden” – a symbol of growth, connection and the new garden in Neuss.

“The Secret Garden” demonstrates how a modern drone show for cultural events, garden shows and public events can go far beyond a sequence of individual spectacular formations.

The storyboard was conceived as one continuous dramaturgical arc: motifs emerge from one another, inherit colours and movements from previous scenes and change their meaning over the course of the show. Voice-over, sound design, music, animated 2D and 3D formations and the ground-based lighting design all interlock.

The sky becomes not merely a projection surface, but a space for storytelling. That is exactly what Aerial Storytelling means to us: a drone show does not simply display images. It can tell a story, create atmosphere and allow an audience to experience a place in a completely new way for a few minutes.