A spectacular drone display will light up the night skies over Toronto this Friday to celebrate the start of the National Bank Open tennis tournament.

Five hundred synchronized drones will take to the skies above the Toronto waterfront on Friday night from 9 to 10 p.m. in a 12-minute display that will be visible to the public from Woodbine Park and Woodbine Beach.

Tennis Canada has partnered with Canadian Traffic Network ULC (CTN) and Skyworx Drone Shows (Skyworx) to kick off the National Bank Open presented by Rogers with a pair of drone displays.

The first of these took place on July 30 in Montreal, and Toronto audiences will get a chance to witness the spectacle for themselves on Friday, August 4.

Video from the July 30 show in Montreal offers up a tantalizing preview of what awaits Toronto audiences this Friday.

Tennis Canada has opted for a drone show over fireworks, calling the display "a refreshing, eco-friendly alternative that ultimately helps achieve the same goal" in a press release.

Attendees will experience shifting colours, shapes, and animations in the night sky courtesy of LED-equipped drones, with themes relating to tennis and the sponsor tournament.

"With this drone show, the sky is literally becoming a new channel for us, accessible for anybody to watch and a one-of-a-kind experience that tennis fans in Canada have yet to witness," said Anne Belliveau, Tennis Canada's Senior Vice-President and Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer.

"With this technology, we are able to bring our sport and our event outside the stadiums, pushing our NBO fan experience to new heights while engaging and entertaining existing and new audiences," added Beliveau.

Karl Hale, Tournament Director of the National Bank Open in Toronto, expects the drone show to be a popular event for social media sharing, stating that "One of the great things about this drone show is that when it's over, it's not really finished."

"Part of the fun will be seeing and engaging with the fantastic content that will be produced both by our team but also by the fans in attendance," said Hale.

The drone show will also mark the start of the NBO's 407 ETR Family Weekend, which returns to Toronto on August 5 and 6.