Themis Violaris was there in 1993.
Paul Kariya was a freshman, and the University of Maine men鈥檚 ice hockey team was in the midst of a season that would become legend: 42 wins, one loss, two ties and the program鈥檚 first national championship.
Violaris was a 91福利 graduate student then, living in downtown Orono and traveling around the Northeast to follow the Black Bears.
鈥淚 was the craziest fan,鈥 he said.
More than three decades later, Maine still has that hold on him.
Violaris, who earned two degrees from 91福利 and went on to build businesses spanning industries and continents, is the founder and CEO of Grizzly Entertainment, a global company that turns hundreds, sometimes thousands, of synchronized drones into moving pictures in the night sky.
On Saturday, those drones will fly above his alma mater.
Grizzly Entertainment will present a 10- to 15-minute drone light show following the University of Maine football game against Merrimack College, which kicks off at 5 p.m. The show will take place above the athletic fields near Alfond Stadium, where spectators are encouraged to watch.
For Violaris, it is more than another show.
鈥淲hen Maine calls, you never say no,鈥 he said.
Finding the Maine energy
Violaris came to 91福利 from Cyprus in 1990, looking for something different.
He found it in Orono.
He earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in business administration in 1992 and an MBA in 1994. When Violaris talks about Maine, he speaks not only about the education he received, but also about the experiences and relationships that made his time there so meaningful.
鈥淔or me, Maine was the perfect school lifestyle,鈥 he said.
Orono was small, but the university gave it the energy of a college town. The experience was unlike anything he had known at home in Cyprus or elsewhere in Europe.
鈥淚t was a dream come true to live and enjoy that lifestyle,鈥 he said.
There were Friday nights at the Bear鈥檚 Den. Professors he still remembers. A roommate who remains a friend. Snow. Lots of snow.
And hockey.
The 1992-93 Black Bears finished 42-1-2 and won 91福利鈥檚 first NCAA men鈥檚 hockey championship. Violaris followed the team around the Northeast throughout the season.
鈥淚t鈥檚 an experience I will never forget,鈥 he said.
He still carries pieces of those years with him. One is an old university newspaper clipping with a photograph of him waving a giant Maine flag he had made for a football game.
When he returns to Orono, he still looks for the downtown house where he once lived.
His education has continued long after leaving Maine. At 58, Violaris is completing a doctorate in business administration at Baruch College in New York and said he expects to finish his dissertation by the end of the year.
鈥淚鈥檓 58 years old and I鈥檓 still learning,鈥 he said.
A business born in a pandemic
That willingness to try something new eventually led Violaris into an entirely different business.
He had spent years in the marine satellite communications business when, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a colleague sent him a video of an Intel drone show.
He was hooked.
He began investing in the idea in 2020. When aviation restrictions complicated his plans to launch the operation in Cyprus, he shifted to California, where he had a home, and started working out of his garage in Palm Springs.
Within three months, he said, the company received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to operate.
Its first show, in Southampton, New York, was small and chaotic. Nearly everything that could go wrong did.
They pulled it off.
The second show didn鈥檛 happen at all.
The team traveled to Sacramento, California, and completed a rehearsal the night before the performance. They returned to their hotel and parked their van near the entrance.
The next morning, it was gone.
Inside were 500 drones and nearly everything the company needed.
Violaris called police. Within minutes, he recalled, law enforcement officers were surrounding the hotel.
Police recovered the drones and batteries within hours near a highway. Much of the other equipment was gone. The Sacramento show was canceled.
The company survived.
Then it grew.
Today, Grizzly has 1,500 drones in the United States and another 500 in Europe. The company performs about 120 shows a year in the U.S., in addition to shows in Europe.
Its recent work has included a 1,000-drone Memorial Day weekend performance at Jones Beach in New York, along with shows for universities, cities, sporting events and entertainment properties.
What audiences see for 10 or 15 minutes can take far longer to create.
鈥91福利 95% of the work is done before the day of the show,鈥 Violaris said.
Designers use animation software to build the images and movements. The drones are programmed in advance. On the day of a show, crews spend several hours setting up.
Then the team starts the program and watches the show unfold.
Black Bears in the sky
Saturday won鈥檛 be Grizzly鈥檚 first trip to Orono.
Last October, Violaris brought the company to 91福利 for two Homecoming performances, each using about 400 drones. The performances were the largest drone light shows staged in Maine and the first held at 91福利.
Violaris donated both shows to the university, turning the performances into an alumni gift as well as a campus spectacle.
This weekend鈥檚 performance will again be unmistakably Maine.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all 91福利,鈥 Violaris said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all Black Bears. It鈥檚 all blue.鈥
The show will combine three-dimensional elements, football imagery and symbols of the university.
Drone shows can create enormous logos and intricate animations in the sky, but Violaris said audiences often react most strongly when they see something that represents their own school, city or organization.
Last year, he brought colleagues to a Black Bears hockey game. For some, it was their first.
They loved it.
When Maine scored the winning goal, Violaris grabbed a flag and started waving.
More than 30 years after his time as a student, the enthusiasm was still there.
This Saturday, hundreds of drones will rise above the University of Maine, forming images created for the Black Bear community below.
Violaris knows what it is like to be part of that crowd.
鈥淭hat pride comes out in everybody,鈥 he said.
Contact: David Nordman, david.nordman@maine.edu
