Universal Orlando drones: FAA authorizes Sky Elements to fly over theme park again
The Brief
A new waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says that Sky Elements can now fly drones over Universal Orlando again.
The waiver comes just in time for the park's nighttime show, "CineSational: A Symphonic Spectacular," to return after a season of closure.
Universal previously stopped using the Sky Elements drones following a tragic incident at a Christmas drone show over Lake Eola where a 7-year-old boy was seriously injured and sent to the hospital.
ORLANDO, Fla. - A new waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says that Sky Elements can now fly drones over Universal Orlando again.
What we know
The waiver comes just in time for the park's nighttime show, "CineSational: A Symphonic Spectacular," to return after a season of closure. The show previously used Sky Elements drones.
However, Universal stopped using the drones following a tragic incident at a Sky Elements Christmas Drone Show at Lake Eola in downtown Orlando. Although the drones were supposed to stay above the lake and away from the crowd, the drones went off course, crashed into each other and fell into the lake, striking a 7-year-old boy and sending him to the hospital.
The waiver states that the operations conducted under it are limited to the location described as the Universal Orlando Backlot.
Click to open this PDF in a new window.
The backstory
The Christmas drone show accident took place on Dec. 21, 2024, at Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando.
Alezander, a 7-year-old boy, was seriously injured after red and green-lit drones collided and plummeted into the crowd at the event.
FOX 35 News spoke with the parents of Alezander, who said one of the drones knocked him out on impact, causing a chest injury. He underwent open-heart surgery the following day.
Dig deeper
A video shared with FOX 35 News captured the drones crashing into the lake and veering close to spectators. Shortly after, the City of Orlando canceled the second show, citing technical difficulties in a statement on X. A spokesperson for the City of Orlando confirmed after that the FAA was leading an investigation into the incident.
According to the contract with the City of Orlando, the 500 drones operated by Sky Elements were meant to fly above the lake, staying clear of the crowd in designated areas. However, during the show, several drones collided midair and fell into the lake.
The FAA had since suspended the waiver that allowed Sky Elements, the drone company hired to put on the show, to put on other drone shows across the country, pending the outcome of its investigation, as well as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation.
Typically, during a synchronized drone show, the drones are linked up by GPS. Experts suggested various potential causes for the malfunction.
Drone expert, Dr. Vivek Sharma of Florida Institute of Technology, speculated the failure might stem from GPS interference, programming errors or drone collisions.
In January, the NTSB released its preliminary report on what happened during the show, citinga few minor issues within minutes of the first show starting:
At first, five of the drones were not accepting launch data.
Officials troubleshooted some of the Wi-Fi access points and connected all 500 drones to the network.
Officials conducted a "soft reboot" to bring the shows into "show ready" mode. All but two – 498 drones – seemed ready for the show. The two that did not connect were pulled, the report said.
Shortly after the first show started, the pilot noted that the drones did not launch "uniformly," and when the drones shifted positions, began to crash into one another.
The NTSB found that a "launch parameter file" which contained the final flight data for the drones was never sent, and that the "show center was not completely aligned."
A review of the logs found that the show's position was rotated by 7 degrees. That change in position also allowed the "geo hard fence" to be too close to the crowds, the report said.
What they're saying
Sky Elements Drone Shows is a Texas-based entertainment company that puts on professional drone shows across the country, according to its website.
At IAAPA Expo 2024, the company reportedly set a new Guinness World Record – its 10th – for the "largest aerial display of a bird formed by multi-rotors/drones." Sky Elements drone show used 2,484 drones. The record to beat was 984, a news release said.
In response to the incident, Sky Elements had proposed several measures to the FAA aimed at preventing similar occurrences in the future. These included:
Allowing additional on-site preparation time before showtime to alleviate time pressures.
Establish an on-call system requiring a chief pilot or second in command "to verify all the necessary steps have been completed before showtime."
Providing additional training for all remote pilots in command of the drones.
"Sky Elements is fully committed to safety, transparency and continuous improvement," representatives said in the prepared statement. "The NTSB's preliminary report revealed that this was an isolated incident involving actions outside the scope of our established operating procedures, which are specifically designed to prioritize safety and prevent such occurrences. Sky Elements has a proven track record of delivering safe, high-quality performances."
To further strengthen its existing safety protocols and incorporate the NTSB's recommendations, Sky Elements said it had introduced the following enhancements:
Additional time has been allocated to pre-show procedures to enhance our already thorough safety checks of all systems and environmental conditions before launch.
An updated requirement for two licensed pilots to fly each show, who will independently confirm the completion of pre-flight procedures, introducing an additional layer of oversight and accountability.
Incorporate advanced safety protocols, additional emergency procedures and evolving best practices in drone show operations into our industry-leading training programs.
"These enhancements reflect our commitment to operational excellence and our determination to prevent such events from occurring in the future," Sky Elements said. "We will continue refining our processes in collaboration with relevant authorities and sharing updates as appropriate to maintain the highest standards of safety and innovation in the drone show industry."
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The Source
This story was written based on information gathered from previous reporting and a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waiver.
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Politico
7 hours ago
- Politico
The New Faith-Based Hollywood
BUFFALO, New York — In the middle of April, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Mario Lopez of Saved By the Bell fame is shivering outside on set, periodically bundled in a down jacket. Crew members and Los Angeles-based actors mill about in winter gear. Behind them sit a close-to-frozen pond, barren trees and a row of identical light blue homes. Lopez is the star of A Christmas Spark, an upcoming film about a middle-aged lawyer who returns home around the holidays to become a firefighter — and, spoiler alert, finds love along the way. It sounds, looks and feels just like a Hallmark movie. But peek behind the cameras, and A Christmas Spark is part of a new media boom, funded largely by conservative donors, that's reshaping entertainment in the Trump era. It's produced by Great American Media, a company focused on family friendly, faith-based content and led by Bill Abbott, the former CEO of the parent company of the Hallmark Channel who left amid a nasty political split during Donald Trump's first administration. Despite the stars and the sets, we're far from a major studio production. And for GAM, that's on purpose. Most Hollywood studios and streaming services are dealing with turbulent financial waters and concerns about looming tariffs. But in an era in which Americans are interested in living their politics in the companies they support and the media they consume, outfits like Great American Media — which consists of a streaming service, multiple cable networks and produces much of its own content — are growing. GAM is part of an expanding network of faith-based production companies and streaming services that are finding success in an increasingly polarized country. They're both slowly building dedicated audiences and have cashed in with big hits, like the Angel Studios movie Sound of Freedom, which made $250 million on a less than $15-million budget. These companies insist they aren't partisan, seeking only to create a brand associated with family and amorphous American values that parents can feel comfortable watching at home. But GAM and like-minded companies are able to succeed where secular alternatives struggle by using a sense of conservative aggrievement with Hollywood to their benefit. Bad review in a mainstream publication? It's the liberal media, even more reason to support their offerings. Themes like same-sex marriage or pre-marital sex offend you? Try faith-based media. For decades, many of the same concepts could be applied to Hallmark or Lifetime films. While not overtly political, they espoused generally culturally conservative values and a moral tradition that appealed to conservative viewers, with an emphasis on small-town living and heterosexual love stories. But as Hallmark has begun making some content about gay couples and hasn't committed to promoting unambiguously religious themes, a swath of its fans have gone looking for something else that more directly conforms with their politics and their values. That's where many of them find GAM and a growing slate of faith-based or avowedly conservative production companies. Longtime president of the Federalist Society Leonard Leo, for example, helped to bankroll Wonder Project, the Texas-based studio that produced House of David, the wildly popular retelling of the biblical shepherd's story that found a home on Amazon's Prime Video. Leo received a $1.6-billion gift that he's using with the express purpose of making culture more conservative. 'You're only going to accomplish so much in shifting American cultural and social life through politics and public policy if you're not dealing with the cultural institutions that are at the choke point of American opinion, American sentiment, American thinking,' Leo tells POLITICO Magazine. 'So entertainment, of course, is a really important part of trying to rebalance the culture.' GAM leaders don't state their ambitions as quite as directly political. But they also believe there's money and cultural influence in serving people who are tired of what they're getting from Hollywood. 'We're focused on meeting the needs of an unmet audience,' Abbott wrote in an email to POLITICO Magazine. 'Our viewers are multigenerational and value content that reflects faith, family, and country.' Abbott, a spry, 63-year-old Long Islander by birth, has been working in family entertainment since 1988. He worked at big networks like CBS and Fox before he joined the Crown Media Family Networks in 2000 and was named CEO of Crown Media — the parent company that operates Hallmark programming — in 2009. He oversaw the launch of the Hallmark Movie Channel, got Hallmark into the scripted series game, and presided over decades of sustained success for the brand. Everything looked rosy before a tumultuous breakup during President Donald Trump's first term spurred by a White House Christmas event, an ad for a wedding registry website and a public outcry. 'In 2017, you could see the change in the chairman and the management at the parent company and the family to become much more woke,' Abbott said in February at the Conservative Political Action Conference, when asked why he left Hallmark. 'And DEI driven, very DEI driven. They were in DEI before it was cool to be in DEI.' According to Abbott, in 2017 the Trump White House chose Hallmark to host a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. After the network hosted the show, he says he was told by his bosses at the Hallmark Channel's parent company, that 'you're either for humanity or you're against it,' chastising him for agreeing to host the event. Hallmark did not respond to requests for comment. Then, in 2020, Abbott departed the company after a December 2019 ad for wedding website that depicted a same-sex couple exchanging vows and kissing. After the conservative group One Million Moms objected to the ad, Abbott and his team pulled the ad from its programming — a move that prompted swift backlash. #BoycottHallmark trended on X, then Twitter, and public figures including Ellen DeGeneres called out Abbott directly. The company ultimately reversed course and reinstated the ad, and Abbott stepped down a little over a month after the fallout and the intense backlash to pulling the ad inside and outside the company. 'We made a decision to not take one commercial and that blew up everything on the planet,' Abbott said in April on the podcast of Moms for America, an organization that recently presented Trump with the 'Man of the Century' award at a gala held at Mar-a-Lago. He noted Hallmark was careful about the ads they took in general, not running ads for political campaigns, alcohol or drugs or feminine hygiene products. In his email, Abbott wrote, 'I am very proud of what we built at Hallmark, but their priority became creating content to align with political and social counterculture rather than staying focused on celebrating tradition and delivering what viewers wanted. My goal has always been to serve the audience with uplifting entertainment that creates trust.' So Abbott pivoted into the world of faith-based media. As Abbott tells it, actor Jon Voight — now Trump's Special Ambassador to Hollywood, who starred in the Hallmark film J.L. Family Ranch in 2016 — introduced Abbott to Tom Hicks, a Texas-based private equity investor who runs Hicks Equity Partners. In 2020, Hicks Equity Partners looked to raise $200 million for conservative alternatives to Fox News and explored buying Newsmax, as they sought to put their political imprimatur on American media. (Hicks' son, Thomas Hicks Jr., is a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee and a national finance co-chair for Trump's 2016 campaign.) The Newsmax acquisition never came to fruition, but Hicks Equity Partners helped Abbott get Great American Media off the ground, aiding in his acquisition of the cable network Great American Country in 2021 from Discovery which was subsequently rebranded to Great American Family. Their original programming airs on both linear cable and streaming. According to Great American Media, Hicks Equity Partners has been joined in their initial investment by several other sources, including Deason Capital (a Dallas-based family office run by conservative activist and donor Doug Deason) and Sony. Hicks Equity Partners did not respond to a request for comment. 'Right now, we're going through a period where religious conservatives are increasingly assertive and very energetic in funding and expanding their own cultural space,' said Anne Nelson, author of Shadow Network: Media, Money and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right. While it rejects an explicitly political label, Great American Media receives much of its funding from sources that also fund politically conservative organizations and candidates. They and other similar production companies believe they can power their growth through servicing a large swath of viewers who sound a lot like how Republican candidates describe their voters. 'We have people in our culture who very much want all aspects of their life to be consistent with family-centered values,' Leo says. 'When they're in the marketplace, or when they're in the political world, or when they're simply doing what people do in life to engage in leisure and entertainment, they look for that kind of family-values centered thinking and approach to life.' In the world of faith-based television and movie content, business is booming. Sound of Freedom, a 2023 thriller distributed by the faith-based network Angel Studios about child trafficking that critics called a vehicle for promoting conspiracy theories, minted over $184 million in North America. That made it one of the most successful independent movies ever. His Only Son, another 2023 Angel Studios film, made over $13 million on a $250,000 budget. The Chosen, an ongoing television series about Jesus by filmmaker Dallas Jenkins, claims to have crowdfunded almost $100 million and reached a quarter of a billion people via streaming. Crowdfunding is a popular tool for faith-based production companies that use their audience's enthusiasm — often around a particular political point — to raise cash. Since 2022, The Daily Wire, a conservative media company co-founded by commentator Ben Shapiro, has also produced multiple successful television shows and films and has become a big player in this space. House of David was a huge crossover hit for Wonder Studios, and a starting point for Leo's mission to get more traditional studios and streaming platforms to promote these types of stories. 'I don't see this as being in competition with big Hollywood. I see this as being an opportunity for big Hollywood to make targeted investments that make them money at a time when it's hard to make money in producing movies,' says Leo. Great American Family, meanwhile, grew its viewership by 20 percent between the fourth quarters of 2023 and 2024, making it one of the few networks achieving that sort of rapid growth, according to internal documents from GAM shared with POLITICO Magazine and Nielsen ratings. (Others include conservative media networks Fox News and Newsmax.) Over the same timespan, Hallmark's audience shrunk by 9 percent and Lifetime's by 13 percent, according to Nielsen ratings. Hallmark and Lifetime still maintain larger audiences in total than Great American Family, though. On the business side, many faith-based production companies follow a similar proposition to a channel like Hallmark: build out a slate of movies and TV shows that follow a tried and true formula of simple love stories and moral lessons. 'The reason the model works is because you keep budgets down. These are not genre films. These are not films that require an awful lot in terms of location. Often they're reusing actors,' says Adam Nayman, a Toronto-based film critic and professor at the University of Toronto. 'You kind of build up your own star system where these people are not stars, but they become recognizable to your audience.' GAM's streaming service is currently advertising 'Summer Romcoms' like Sweet Maple Romance, 'Military Heroes' like Peace River: God, Country & The Cowboy Way, and 'Stories of Faith' like Disciples in the Moonlight. The company also launched a specific childrens' hub on their streaming service this week. They are trying to build a catalog of films that fit together in one neat, Christian package. 'Sometimes you'll say, 'I love that show, but I don't know where it is — is this on Max? Is this on Netflix?'' said Kristen Roberts, Great American Media's chief revenue officer and executive vice president of programming, in a recent interview at GAM's New York offices. 'We want to be the complete opposite of that. We want people to say, 'I watch Pure Flix, I watch Great American Family,'' referencing two arms of GAM. The goal, she said, is for viewers to say, ''I watch that service' more than 'I watch that particular show.'' Faith-based networks also have the benefit of being able to position themselves in direct opposition with what they argue is a liberal agenda in Hollywood. The community of faith-based filmmakers can set themselves up as the antidote to cultural products that they see as inappropriate for children and adults alike. 'When you look at White Lotus and you look at situations where they're creating storylines that have incest in them and they're being applauded by the entertainment community, that's an intentional way of taking aberrant behavior and trying to normalize it,' Abbott said on the Moms for America podcast. 'We see it all the time in entertainment — every day. You can turn on almost any movie, any network, go to any movie, and I know it's a very intentional strategy.' The success of faith-based media companies is in large part a reaction to the kind of frustrations that Abbott elucidates. The industry is buoyed by the very thing that it rails against — and it's the response that drives some of the success. 'They've really not ever tried to pretend that they're for everyone,' says Nayman. 'Instead, they say, 'isn't this what you've been missing.' And if you're the one getting that message, and you're the one being reached by that advertisement, then your grievance is being stoked, even if it's underneath the guise of a warm hug.' 'You're assuming that people are fed up with anything that resembles something mainstream or something secular,' Nayman adds. 'And I think they really, really take advantage of a polarized moment.' There's tension between faith-based content and the rest of the media landscape. The faith-based films and television shows — when they're reviewed at all — are regularly panned by critics. Sound of Freedom, the film from this universe that was recently reviewed by the most mainstream critics, has a Metacritic score of 36 out of 100. 'It's bizarre, unsettling and yet — in the filmmaking equivalent of turning wine to water — bracingly dull to boot,' read a review in The Telegraph. 'The quality is a really big issue,' Leo acknowledges. He argues conservatives need to invest in incubating talent that can make family-values movies and shows that are more slick, better produced and appeal to a wider audience. The art in this space often has no real aspirations towards acclaim as it's connoted by an Oscar or Emmy. In fact, in some ways they've created a parallel industry, with their own critics and markers of success. The Movieguide Awards, which are held every year and which largely honor films and television that Movieguide — a service that brands itself as 'movie reviews for Christians' — believes connects with their values. In 2025, winners included the movie Reagan, actor Candace Cameron Bure for A Christmas Less Traveled and Americans With No Address, a documentary about the country's homelessness crisis narrated by actor William Baldwin. Movieguide rates Hollywood films and gives them a 'family content' rating. In the company's annual 'Report to Hollywood,' they argue that films with strong Christian values perform better at the box office. Their formula relies on the often strong performance of children's films and doesn't include every mainstream hit; both Barbie and Oppenheimer had low 'family content' ratings, for example. 'We have a new generation that's having kids, and they want faith and values, their generation does not want sex and violence.' says Ted Baehr, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Movieguide. He cites this year's Academy Awards Best Picture winner Anora, about a New York sex worker, which made a little over $20 million at the domestic box office. 'In Hollywood [that] is pathetic,' he says. 'It's worthless. And all the Academy Award winners were pathetic.' (The film was generally considered an indie success; it was made on a $6 million budget.) While Hollywood has long been a bastion of liberalism, there wasn't always such a stark divide between mainstream Hollywood and religious fare. But in today's political climate, the gap is widening. According to April 2024 research from Pew, 59 percent of Protestants align with the Republican Party compared to 38 percent who align with Democrats, and among white Evangelical Protestants, 85 percent lean Republican while only 14 percent lean Democrat. Christians of all faiths are more likely to be Republicans, where Jews, Muslims and anyone unaffiliated with a particular religion are more likely to be a Democrat. The large partisan split among white Evangelical Protestants in particular has grown steadily and significantly since the start of the Reagan era. And that gap has been reflected in available entertainment options. In the Facebook group 'Great American Family (GAC) Fan Community', users post every day about how the network is one of the only ones that represents their interests, values and politics. In a recent post, a fan wrote, 'GAC SEEMS TO HAVE SOME GREAT PROGRAMMING COMING UP FOR GOOD FRIDAY INTO EASTER. THANK YOU! I SAW SOME DISTURBING STUFF ON A MOVIE WITH HALLMARK OVER THE WEEKEND. ONLY TUNED IT IN WHEN IT WAS ALMOST OVER AND IT WAS 10 MINUTES OF AGENDA!' Her post was flooded with supportive comments. 'Stopped watching Hallmark movies when they cowered to the masses allowing same sex couples. Don't miss it and LOVE Great American Family!!,' another member of the group replied. Abbott uses and cultivates that sense of cultural alienation to market his content. Along with A Christmas Spark — where after two days on set Lopez's character has moved from a big-city office setup to charming small-town USA — GAM's offerings include the upcoming Home Sweet Christmas Wedding starring Cameron Bure and a slate of released Easter-themed productions including Forty-Seven Days with Jesus. Watching GAM is not only an escape from Hollywood, but also a signifier of your own values or politics. While spending your money or time with a Great American Media product, you're voting for something. It's not about artistic innovation or form, it's about sending a message. 'I think that 'Christian' is used by the media to downplay or to stereotype,' Abbott told Moms for America. 'It's reverse racism or however you want to define it. You get stereotyped and put in this box. And that's what they want to do, they want to put faith in a box and make it go away. And we will never let that happen.' — Tessa Berenson Rogers contributed to this report.
New York Post
9 hours ago
- New York Post
King Charles ‘livid' as royal family's cherished Christmas tradition faces cancellation: expert
King Charles is said to be 'livid' that he won't exactly get Christmas cheer this year. The Sun recently reported there is a potential shortage of pheasants at the monarch's Sandringham Estate, which could affect the chances of a full shooting calendar this winter. Advertisement It is known as one of the monarch's favorite pastimes during the holiday season. 'King Charles III is livid, frustrated and disappointed, reflecting both his deep personal attachment to the cherished family tradition and his broader commitment to his royal heritage,' British royal expert Hilary Fordwich claimed to Fox News Digital. 'He's also annoyed that the mishap reflects rather poorly on the management of Sandringham, which he inherited from his mother, Queen Elizabeth II,' she explained. 'The shoot gathers his extended royal family and guests, reinforcing bonds while upholding a long-standing aristocratic tradition. The root of the problem is that Charles has always opposed importing birds from elsewhere, preferring to maintain the estate's game population. The eco-friendly approach has failed.' Advertisement According to the outlet, the number of birds currently available has dropped. 6 Britain's King Charles III wore hearing protection as he watched an artillery piece be fired in Lark Hill on Friday. via REUTERS This may force the 76-year-old, who is battling an undisclosed form of cancer, to cancel the traditional Boxing Day shoot, which is described as a central part of the royal family's holiday plans. Fox News Digital reached out to Buckingham Palace for comment. Advertisement 'Allegedly, King Charles is disappointed that one of his favorite Christmas family traditions may not take place this year,' British broadcaster and photographer Helena Chard told Fox News Digital. 'The Sandringham shoot is questionable due to a lack of Sandringham pheasants on the estate. It seems the family will have to bond, enjoy and celebrate over another hobby, or possibly clay pigeon shoots are the way forward.' 'King Charles may have felt a fleeting healthy upset, but in light of recent times, with the slimmed-down monarchy, cancer battles and more… the monarchy has found their typical ways changing as they are forced to be flexible,' she shared. 6 King Charles III was recently pictured taking a stroll at the Sandringham Estate. Bav Media / The Sun reported that a long-serving gamekeeper, who is responsible for managing the bird population on the estate, is said to have been let go in a recent staff shake-up, resulting in the shortage. Advertisement 'It was a total cock-up,' a source claimed to the outlet. 'No birds, no bang, just red faces. The king wasn't having it.' According to Chard, while the king may be let down, he isn't opposed to change. The monarch is said to be adjusting to a new routine as he continues his weekly cancer treatments and remains devoted to full-time royal duties. 6 King Charles III and Queen Camilla with Prince William, Prince of Wales attend the Christmas Morning Service at St Mary Magdalene Church on December 25, 2024. UK Press via Getty Images 'He pushes for change on occasion,' said Chard. 'He broke royal tradition with his last Christmas speech, recorded at the Fitzrovia Chapel, rather than a royal residence. It was there that he chose to reflect on the deeper things that connect us all — community, health, inclusivity and love.' Chard also pointed out that the shortage may prompt the king to review the shooting tradition, which has come under fire from animal rights groups. Royal expert Ian Pelham Turner is hopeful the change of plans will allow the king to prioritize one thing — making amends with his younger son, Prince Harry. The Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan Markle stepped back as senior royals in 2020, citing the unbearable intrusions of the British press and a lack of support from the palace. They reside in California. 6 On Christmas Day in 2017, the late Queen Elizabeth II, her husband and other members of the royal family were pictured leaving the St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, Norfolk. AFP via Getty Images Advertisement Since the couple's royal exit, they have aired their grievances in interviews and podcasts, as well as Harry's explosive 2023 memoir, 'Spare.' Sources close to the prince, 40, previously claimed to People magazine that the king won't respond to his phone calls and letters. 'Perhaps he could bring the royal clan together, lock the door, knock all their heads together and unite the entire family, including Harry and Meghan,' Turner told Fox News Digital. 'This may be feathers flying in a different way than a grouse shoot, but if they really believe in the Christian principles, they would try, in my view. It is what Britain expects.' People magazine reported that Charles supports traditional practices and opposes importing birds from elsewhere for the customary rural pastime. However, the outlet reported that maintaining game birds in the area has been 'challenging.' 6 Britain's King Charles III greeted families of service personnel during a visit to the regiments headquarters in Lark Hill, Wiltshire. via REUTERS Advertisement People also reported that the king's grandson, Prince George, was taken on his first grouse-hunting expedition at Balmoral, the royal family's Scottish estate. Royal author Tom Quinn claimed in his new book, 'Yes Ma'am — The Secret Life of Royal Servants,' that Kate Middleton isn't allowing her three young children, including George, 11, to participate in 'blooding.' This longtime ritual calls for members of the royal family to smear blood on their faces from their first kill during fox or stag hunting. Fox News Digital reached out to Kensington Palace for comment. In his 2023 book 'Gilded Youth,' Quinn claimed that William also wanted his family to get with the times. Advertisement ''William is struggling with the traditional pastimes of the royal family as they become ever more unpopular with the public,' he wrote. 6 Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, previously reported that Princess Diana wasn't a fan of game shooting. Getty Images 'William loves shooting — a love he shares with his father — but he is also conscious that the tide is now moving against what many people now refer to as blood sports (the royals prefer to refer to them as field sports). But are they suitable for George, Charlotte and Louis?' Quinn also wrote that while William, 42, was 'keen' to get the children into shooting, he also noted that 'few' expected Kate to 'allow' her children to take part in the blooding tradition. Advertisement Harry previously detailed his experience with the tradition in his memoir, 'Spare.' The 40-year-old recalled how his hunting guide, Sandy, pressed his face into the belly wound of a stag he shot during a blooding ritual on the grounds of Balmoral Castle. 'He placed a hand gently behind my neck and… pushed my head inside the carcass,' the Duke of Sussex wrote, as quoted by the New York Post. 'I tried to pull away, but Sandy pushed me deeper,' the prince wrote. 'I was shocked by his insane strength. And by the infernal smell. My breakfast jumped up from my stomach. After a minute, I couldn't smell anything, because I couldn't breathe. My nose and mouth were full of blood, guts and a deep, upsetting warmth.' Harry wrote that he 'felt swelling pride' that he had 'been good to that stag' by killing it with a single shot so it wouldn't feel pain. He said it was a 'show of respect for the slain' and 'an act of communion by the slayer.' The outlet noted that the book's revelations prompted animal rights organization PETA to condemn the father of two for his graphic descriptions. Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, previously reported that Princess Diana wasn't a fan of game shooting, which has been one of the royal family's favorite activities for centuries. Seward claimed that the late Princess of Wales didn't even like her sons being photographed holding guns. Seward claimed Diana reportedly told William and Harry, 'Remember, there's always someone in a high-rise flat who doesn't want to see you shoot a Bambi,' as quoted by the U.K.'s Express. Still, the boys loved hunting, and Diana used to jokingly call them her 'Killer Wales.' Ken Wharfe, Diana's former royal protection officer, also claimed that Diana was disgusted by hunting. 'The royal shooting obsession was something Princess Diana found repugnant,' Wharfe said, as quoted by the outlet. 'Requiring little or no skill, royal pheasant shoots are a pre-planned carnage of wildlife, bred specifically for slaughter.'
Yahoo
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- Yahoo
Jack Link's Marks 40th Anniversary with "Christmas for Carnivores" Promotion to Celebrate National Jerky Day, June 12
The company is celebrating 40 years of protein snacking with a special 50% discount on a gift box of Jack Link's beef jerky, only on Amazon. MINONG, Wisc., June 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Jack Link's, the leading brand in protein meat snacks and a proud family-owned company, is excited to announce its celebration of National Jerky Day on June 12, 2025. This year's festive theme, "Christmas for Carnivores," invites meat-lovers everywhere to enjoy their favorite protein-packed Jack Link's jerky while celebrating four decades of Jack Link's innovation and leadership in the meat snacks category. "We are excited to celebrate National Jerky Day as we mark our 40th anniversary," said Troy Link, CEO of Jack Link's. "We created the protein meat snacks category and remain the number one brand in this space today. Consumers' awareness of the importance of protein is growing rapidly, and we're proud to be a family-owned company that continues to innovate with our customers. At Jack Link's, we take immense pride in our heritage, leadership and investment in the growth of our category." Leading up to June 12, Jack Link's will bring together jerky lovers from all walks of life to celebrate National Jerky Day with fun promotions, engaging social media activities, and mouth-watering meat snacks that satisfy every craving: Jack Link's will be offering a limited-time national promotion: customers can enjoy an unbelievable 50% discount on a special box containing 11 full-size Jack Link's products for only $19.19 (while supplies last). This exclusive deal will be available on Amazon starting on June 8, allowing fans to stock up on their favorite jerky just in time for National Jerky Day celebrations. For those that miss the Amazon deal, Jack Link's will also be offering 30% off all products at a sale that runs June 11-13. The excitement kicks off at the NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich. the weekend of June 6-8. Famed Jack Link's mascot Sasquatch will play Santa while distributing more than 50,000 bags of Jack Link's DUOS alongside the waving branches of a giant, 20-foot inflatable Christmas tree strung with bags of jerky. The fan experience will be punctuated with on-air mentions during Sunday's race broadcast on Prime. Holly LaVallie, SVP of Marketing at Jack Link's, shared insights into the significance of National Jerky Day, a national "holiday" which Jack Link's created in 2012 to celebrate real meat protein snacking. "National Jerky Day has become an event jerky fans look forward to each year. This year's 'Christmas for Carnivores' theme perfectly captures the spirit that drives our love for meat snacks… and our 50% off gift box sale on Amazon is truly like Christmas in June for carnivores everywhere! Celebrate with us, or better yet, bring Christmas in June to your favorite carnivore!" This isn't the first year that Jack Link's has gone big to celebrate National Jerky Day. The company has created some memorable National Jerky Day activations in the past, from last year's 'Sasquatch in the Skies' spectacular drone light show depicting a 400-foot-tall Sasquatch (bigger than the Statue of Liberty) hovering in the sky over the Hudson River in NYC; to creating a huge replica of Mount Rushmore made out of jerky -- dubbed 'Meat Rushmore' -- in NYC's Columbus Circle; to constructing 'Meatzilla' (a three-story bag of jerky) in NYC's Meatpacking District; and the famous 'Meat the Candidates' portraits made out of jerky depicting candidates Barack 'Oba-meat' and 'Meat' Romney during the 2012 presidential election. For more information about Jack Link's and its products, visit About Link Snacks Link Snacks is a leader in snacking and its brand Jack Link's is the No. 1 meat snack brand in America. Headquartered in Minong, Wisconsin, Link Snacks is a family-owned and operated company that represents a heritage of unsurpassed quality and innovation since 1985. The company is made up of passionate Team Members, across 11 countries, who share an uncompromising commitment to deliver awesome products. Link Snacks offers premium protein snacks in a variety of flavors, sizes and price points, appealing to nearly every consumer and occasion. The company's portfolio of brands includes Jack Link's®, Lorissa's Kitchen®, Wild River®, Golden Island®, Country Fresh Meats®, BiFi®, and Peperami®. Visit to learn more. Media Contact: Emily Buchanan M: 201-456-5048 E: 396366@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Jack Link's
