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Ever since the founding of Riverfest in 1979, Wilmington's biggest annual fall festival has traditionally had fireworks downtown on Saturday night.

But times change and technology advances, and this year, organizers of , will try something a little different.

When the festival announced last week on their official Facebook page that this year's Riverfest fireworks display would be replaced by a lighted drone show, however, organizers didn't plan on setting off a social media firestorm.

More than 300 comments later, that's kind of what happened.

Actually, an Aug. 16 post announcing that a drone show would replace fireworks on Oct. 5 didn't seem to get much traction. But when the festival posted Aug. 27 that it was "trying something new and outside of the box," along with a map of where the show would be and the best place to see it (the Wilmington Riverwalk), the comments section lit up like, well, like fireworks in the night.

Need a break?

Initially, most of the comments seemed to be anti-drone, like one person who imagined that "the WW2 vets who served on the USS NC (are) looking down from heaven frowning," a reference to the Battleship North Carolina moored across the Cape Fear River from downtown.

But then people began defending the drones and their lighted formations, or if not defending them then at least expressing an open mind as to what having a drone show might look like. Several commenters said they had seen drone shows elsewhere and enjoyed them.

"Bravo, Wilmington Riverfest, for trying something new!" one said.

Rebekah Carmichael of Wilmington chimed in with a comment that said, "Thank you, signed anyone with PTSD, small children, elderly with memory issues, and literally every pet and animal."

Dogs are often scared of fireworks, and when she lived downtown, Carmichael said in response to questions, "My dog would always run under the bed and shake. ÖгöÉÙ¸¾ÊÓƵ¦ How do you explain to a pet that theyÖгöÉÙ¸¾ÊÓƵ™re safe when all of their instincts tell them otherwise?"

Another commenter allowed that "drone shows are cool BUT they cannot and do not replace the majestic explosions of fireworks."

Roderick Bell has been involved with Riverfest since 2010, and he's served as board president since 2020.

Since the festival was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, its finances have been tight. Riverfest wasn't able to have fireworks in 2022 or '23.

This year, Bell said, "The original idea was to do fireworks."

But when organizers started looking into costs, they saw they had risen since the festival last had fireworks in 2019, running "north of $20,000," Bell said. "I was like, 'Wow this is interesting.'"

The Open Sky Drone Show the festival is using is less expensive than fireworks, he said, and the decision "basically came down to cost," even though he also sees value in doing "something new, something different, something people haven't seen before."

Even so, Bell said, he wasn't expecting the post, which currently has 765 shares and more than 1,500 likes, to go viral, adding that he was heartened to see that the vast majority of comments were positive.

As for those who prefer fireworks, Bell gets it.

"They want that boom," he said. "They want that pop."

At any rate, organizers would probably prefer The Great Drone Show vs. Fireworks Social Media Kerfuffle of 2024 to the weather-related disruptions Riverfest has endured in recent years.

After going off without a hitch for about three and a half decades, Riverfest has been disrupted numerous times since 2015. That year, heavy rains washed out the festival. In 2016, Hurricane Matthew blew Riverfest into mid-November. In 2018, the festival was again postponed to mid-November, this time due to Hurricane Florence.

This year, Bell joked, "I've put some money in the budget to pay off Mother Nature."

In addition to storms, Riverfest has also weathered its share of controversy in the past, almost from the very beginning.

In 1979, a woman was swept beneath a barge during a "River Race" of improvised crafts. In 2009, an "I Love America Rally" scheduled for Riverfest that some deemed a political display favoring the Tea Party movement was ultimately canceled.

Riverfest was created as a way to get people to come downtown at a time when even many locals had largely stopped doing so. That's not a problem anymore, as downtown Wilmington is generally packed with locals and tourists throughout most of the year.

This year, if anything, organizers might have trouble keeping people, specifically boaters, away from the light-up drone display.

The festival is asking that all watercraft stay out of the Cape Fear River between the south end of the Riverwalk (near The Pilot House restaurant) and the Hotel Ballast on the night of the show, saying that "they can not fly drones over people or boats."

Want to go?

• What: Wilmington Riverfest 2024
• When: Oct. 5-6
• Where: Downtown Wilmington
• Details: WilmingtonRiverfest.com. Open Sky Drone Show is 8:30 p.m. Oct. 5. Best place for viewing is the Wilmington Riverwalk.