Christmas drone show falsely portrayed as India's Kumbh Mela festival

Published on January 17, 2025 at 05:11
3 min read
By Akshita KUMARI, AFP India

Days before India started its mammoth Kumbh Mela festival, a video showing preparations for a nighttime light show surfaced in social media posts that falsely linked it to the six-week Hindu event. The video was in fact originally published by a US-based drone show company and shows a Christmas celebration.

"Amazing supernatural Prayagraj Mahakumbh," read a Hindi-language X post from January 2 that racked up more than 190,000 views.

The post was shared ahead of the world's largest religious gathering Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (archived link).

Indian authorities were preparing for some 400 million pilgrims to attend -- more than the combined population of the United States and Canada.

The millennia-old sacred show of religious piety and ritual bathing is held once every 12 years at the site where the holy Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers meet.

The X post showed footage of a huge number of drones being set up, followed by clips of a huge light display illuminating the night sky.

Hindi text overlaid on the clip says: "Mahakumbh Prayagraj".

Screenshot of the false post taken January 15, 2025

The video also spread on Facebook and Instagram, with some social media users appearing to believe it was filmed in India.

"Thanks to Indian technology. Bharat Mata ki Jai (Victory of Mother India)," one commented.

Another asked: "At whose expense is the government doing this?"

A reverse image search of the video on Google, however, found a higher-quality version posted online by a professional drone light show firm based in the US state of Texas.

The entertainment company Sky Elements posted the video on December 6, 2024 with the caption: "5,000 DRONE SANTA" (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video shared in the false posts (left) and Sky Elements' YouTube video (right):

Screenshot comparison of the video shared in the false posts (left) and Sky Elements' YouTube video (right)

The drone show included images of Santa Claus bearing gifts on a sled pulled by reindeer.

Similar footage was posted on YouTube by Guinness World Records, which said it showed thousands of drones displayed in the air (archived link).

"The largest aerial display of a gingerbread village image displayed by multirotors/drones consists of of 4,981 drones, and was achieved by Sky Elements Drone Shows and UVify (both USA) in Mansfield, Texas, USA, on 26 November," the video's description said.

Local TV station FOX 4 shared a similar clip of the display (archived link).

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