A weird, purple flying QR code made of drones appeared in the sky over London for no obvious reason

On Tuesday and Wednesday evening, a peculiar flying QR code made up of drones appeared in the sky over the River Thames in London, emitting a purple glow. It remains unclear why the drone formation was present.

The drones created unusual patterns in the sky above the city before assembling into a QR code leading to an insurance company named Beazley's set. The set was made up of several hundred drones, which initially formed seemingly arbitrary figures such as a coat stand, a paper plane, and the brand's logo before settling into a substantial scannable code.

Beazley stated that the 400 drones were associated with a corporate event taking place at Magazine London, an event space near the river.

They said that the drone show was the most extensive private event in London. The Port of London Authority, responsible for drone flights in the region, confirmed they were aware of the enigmatic drone flight but declined to comment until Friday.

Although flying QR codes are uncommon in the UK, they have been witnessed in other parts of the world, including Shanghai, China, in 2021. Such drone performances are typically associated with significant celebrations such as London's New Year's Eve festivities since 2021, Coachella, and various events for the Royal family.

Beazley has proudly claimed that their exhibition had a larger scale than the iconic clock tower of London, Big Ben, and involved a greater number of drones than those utilized during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

The company disclosed that their initial drone presentation was viewed by an audience consisting of "50 cows, 300 sheep, 2 chickens, and 1 camping broker." Beazley also stated that their upcoming drone show in May will be the first to halt traffic on the River Thames.

First time I've seen a QR code in the skies over London pic.twitter.com/dhtMIfJkS9

— Kieran Corcoran (@kj_corcoran) April 27, 2023

Although Beazley is not the first to use drones to produce a massive QR code in the sky, as a Texan firm utilized 300 drones over Dallas on April Fool's Day in 2022 to "Rickroll" the entire city by directing people who scanned the airborne QR code to Rick Astley's hit song 'Never Gonna Give You Up' on YouTube.

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