The Girona company that made the giant face of Gaudí fly

BarcelonaIt was 9:55 PM when the show to inaugurate the tower of Jesus of the Sagrada Família began. While the white voices of the Escolania de Montserrat sang the first notes and the musicians of the Liceu Symphony Orchestra tuned their instruments, a fleet of 700 drones warmed up their engines at the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau, one kilometer away from the basilica.

Around ten o'clock at night, this swarm of remote-controlled devices took to the Barcelona sky to bring to life an Antoni Gaudí contemplating his work and to recall one of his most famous quotes. "First love, then technique," read the darkness of the night. This stellar minute, which was etched in the retinas of thousands of spectators, had Catalan names and surnames. The company that made this performance possible is Flock Drone Art Studio, a project that started in 2019 and has grown at surprising speeds.

Participating in the Sagrada Família light show was the culmination of a story marked by ambition. "From the very beginning, we set ourselves goals: we always said that we had to participate in events like La Mercè or Port Aventura shows," recalls the project's CEO, Fran Arnau, from the company's headquarters in Celrà (Girona). In an interview with Empreses, the co-founder of the company also acknowledges the "great excitement" he felt upon receiving the commission for the Sagrada Família: it was an "epic" event, of great "technical complexity," a "madness in the best sense of the word," he describes.

Even aware of the task they had been assigned, Arnau admits they never became aware of the "great repercussion" the show would have afterwards. However, the assignment was no ordinary one. Unlike more routine events – with fewer drones and shorter preparation deadlines – that television moment involved a year of preparation and a series of unprecedented tests to minimize any margin of error.

Continuous growth

What began as an initiative driven by five entrepreneurs with around fifty drones now employs sixteen people and boasts a fleet of over 3,000 flying devices. Although the media impact of the Sagrada Família show has not yet translated into an increase in bookings, Flock Drone Art Studio expects to surpass all business records this year. With an annual average of between 40 and 45 shows, they anticipate significantly exceeding these figures in 2026.

Turnover has also grown, which after standing at around 415,000 euros in 2021stood at around 415,000 euros in 2021, has been increasing to 1.6 million in 2025. The forecast for 2026 is to raise revenues above two million and continue to be a benchmark in the light show sector. According to the company, approximately 70% of the business is concentrated in Catalonia and Spain, while the rest is distributed across Europe, with occasional collaborations in other regions. Apart from large-scale shows, the company's clients – 55% private and 45% institutional – typically book them for displays involving between 100 and 500 drones.

Guinness World Record

Just the following week of its peak moment, Flock Drone Art Studio starred in another milestone to be framed in the still brief history of the sector and the project. In the Portuguese city of Porto, within the framework of the Air Invictus festival, the company obtained two Guinness records: it projected the longest phrase ever written with drones – a total of 63 characters – and broke the European record for the largest number of drones flying simultaneously in a light and aerial art show. To achieve this, the company put all its effort into it and deployed 3,097 drones, practically its entire fleet.

For Fran Arnau, both the Sagrada Família show and the two records in Portugal are equally relevant to the project. "I wouldn't separate them; life sometimes brings you coincidences [...] and this binomial created in just over a week is very strong," he explains. From here, the company's will continues to be to grow in all areas and be able to compete with large foreign companies in the sector. And following Gaudí's philosophy, never leaving aside the most creative part. "Our work is not based on quantity, we are also interested in being part of the artistic side," he says. "The most important thing is art and narrative," emphasizes Arnau, in his particular interpretation of the philosophy of the architect he brought to life.