When the skies above the parliamentary triangle explode into life with imagery of the great wedge-tailed eagle Maliyan from January 25-27, it’ll be more than an act of human intervention, for the main performers are drones.

The Flight performance will present a trilogy of stories each night over three evenings, with night markets, food and drink vendors, musicians and live performers roving the national triangle. 

It is at once aimed at inspiring Canberrans and showing off the dazzling potential of technology. 

Each 12-minute show will be played at intervals over the three nights in Commonwealth Place but will also be visible from Lake Burley Griffin and Mount Ainslie.

Behind every successful drone there’s a clever human being, and when I catch up with Anthony Bastic, of AGB Enterprises, in Dubai, I find out just what’s involved.

Bastic is busy preparing “Dhai (Emirati for light) Dubai,” the Gulf country’s first light festival, opening on January 26.

He’s been going there for five years and says he’ll be joining a local curator to showcase Emirati artists to the world.

His company AGB was born in his hometown Sydney, where he’s been a creative director for many years, after he’d worked in programming at Sydney Opera house then headed up the 2000 Olympics Sydney Olympic & Paralympic Games live sites. 

He’s also one of the three people who founded Sydney’s light festival Vivid, which he curated for the first 10 years.

First and foremost,” he tells me, “I see drones as an interesting way to use technology to convey a narrative… It’s always a question of fireworks or drones, drones or fireworks?

“Fireworks are great, but they’re over in a minute, and you can’t tell a story.

“In a country like ours I believe drones are the way we should be telling our stories in the skies, as a vehicle to celebrate.”

In designing a light show for Canberra, he’s had to take into account the fact that the lifespan of a drone is about 10 minutes.

“They can go up, but then they need to come down again to get recharged, so the trick is to tell three stories which link together to become a trilogy – a really great narrative technique that leaves people hanging.”

The three acts are titled, respectively Welcome, Rejoice and One and Free, with distinct overtones of Advance Australia Fair. 

As a regular traveller to places that don’t have democracy, he’s been reflecting on the good things in our system that he senses whenever he comes back home – “The things that really drag you back here.”

Maliyan, familiar to many Canberrans from Welcome to Country ceremonies and dances, is depicted as a mother figure.

“She is our guide, she has personality, she welcomes us to Country, and then, representing wisdom, timelessness and the spirit of Canberra, she asks people to listen to her as she sings of the country, rejoicing in its diversity of plants and animals,” he says.

That pretty well takes care of the first two acts, but in the third, One and Free, Maliyan sings about the great things in our democracy.

Naturally, Bastic reminds me, the skyshow acknowledges 65,000 years of continual culture of our indigenous people, so he has consulted with Ngunnawal Elder Caroline Hughes. 

But it also sings of Federation, our role in giving women the vote and the introduction of the 40-hour week.

How on earth do you show that with drones, I ask, eliciting the age-old showbiz response that I’ll “just have to wait and see”.

AGB is responsible for all the logistical things such as contacting CASA regarding airspace but they don’t have to worry about the night markets and the entertainment – that’s the job of the National Capital Authority – but he is responsible for the two drone “pilots” who have to reconfigure the 600 drones and keep them up in the air – naturally, it’s all programmed.

Apart from light, there’s sound, too – the songs of Maliyan, the drums of democracy and, most important, the recorded voices of former Prime Ministers.

“I’m still working on it,” he admits.

“Oh, yes, and don’t forget there’ll be the soundtrack of the drones,” he adds.

“You’ll hear them all buzzing their little propellers, and with 600 of them, they’re quite loud”.

Flight: 2024 Drone Sky Show, Commonwealth Place, Lake Burley Griffin, 5pm-11pm, January 25-27, with drone shows at 8.30pm, 9.30pm and 10.30pm. Entry free.