Green Lights, Great Views – Pacific Park’s Ferris Wheel Celebrates St. Patrick’s Day

Published on March 11, 2025

The Santa Monica Pier Ferris Wheel will be lit green all weekend for St. Patrick’s Day.

Enjoy “Green Lights, Great Views” as Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier will light up St. Patrick’s Day Weekend with a 90-foot-tall shamrock spinning around its world-famous Ferris Wheel, glowing with vibrant Irish green hues, dynamic patterns, and lucky transitions.

Pacific Park’s Ferris wheel will be joining other landmarks from across the globe including The Sydney Opera House, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Niagara Falls and the London Eye for this annual “greening” to celebrate the observance.

St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated annually on March 17, the date that many believe the patron saint of Ireland died in the year 461. The holiday has been celebrated in Ireland for over a thousand years. However, the first St. Patrick’s Day parade took place not in Ireland but in America. Records show that a St. Patrick’s Day parade was held on March 17, 1601, in a Spanish colony in what is now St. Augustine, Fla. More than a century later, homesick Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched in New York City on March 17, 1772, to honor their homeland’s patron saint. Enthusiasm for the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and parades in New York City, Boston, and other early American cities only grew from there.

The “St. Patrick’s Day” Ferris wheel lights celebration can be watched online at https://www.pacpark.com/live.

The Pacific Wheel’s 174,000 LED lights are mounted on the Ferris wheel’s structure including the 40 spokes and two hubs. The world’s only solar-powered Ferris wheel’s lighting system features 16.7 million color value combinations while the programming and display software presents imaging up to 24 frames per second to display dynamic, custom, computer-generated lighting entertainment. The eco-friendly, enhanced LED lighting provides 81 percent greater energy savings than most Ferris wheel’s traditional incandescent bulbs.

WHAT:
Special Lighting of the Pacific Wheel for St. Patrick’s Day

WHEN:
Friday-Monday, March 14-17, 2025
dusk (around 6 – 7 PM) to midnight

WHERE:
Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier

 

See the lights from home at www.pacpark.com/live.

Pacific Park regularly programs the Ferris wheel to display seasonal programing and themed light designs for holidays and special occasions. The Pacific Wheel’s state-of-the-art lighting package was installed in 2016 and can display over 1.6 million different colors and animate patterns and icons in 24 frames per second. The energy efficient LEDs on the face of the Ferris wheel are powered by solar arrays inside Pacific Park. The light programs are curated and designed by Pacific Park staff. Each design is manually animated; some designs can take hours of programming. The aim is to provide fun, high-energy, and sometimes whimsical designs to entertain guests on the Santa Monica Pier and surrounding beaches.

The Pacific Wheel

Did you know the Pacific Wheel is the world’s only solar-powered Ferris wheel? It gives visitors a panoramic view of the Southern California coastline from more than 130 feet above the Santa Monica Pier. Pacific Park regularly programs the Ferris wheel to display themed light designs for holidays and special occasions.

The Wheel’s state-of-the-art lighting package was installed in 2016 and can display over 1.6 million different colors and animate patterns and icons in 24 frames per second. Fitted with more than 174,000 energy-efficient LED lights, the wheel displays stunning computer-generated lighting entertainment in the evenings.

Pacific Park staff curates and designs these light programs and animates them manually; some designs can take hours of programming. The results are fun, high-energy, and sometimes whimsical designs that entertain guests on the Santa Monica Pier and surrounding beaches.

 

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Feature image courtesy of @pacpark