Santa Monica Pier’s Pacific Wheel Lights Up for Earth Day

Published on April 13, 2020

Pacific Park To Display 90-Foot Tall Globe On Its Ferris Wheel For Earth Day

The water surrounding the Santa Monica Pier will be illuminated by bright green and blue lights this upcoming Earth Day (Wednesday, April 22^nd), as Pacific Park’s iconic Pacific Wheel spins a globe emoji around with its dazzling 174K LED lights. The light program will also feature other green and blue patterns along with hearts for our planet Earth.

This special lighting event will take place on the evening of Wednesday, April 22nd. The Ferris wheel lights can be seen from dusk until 11:30 PM each evening. Enjoy watching the light program from the comfort of your own home on our live-streaming web cams at www.pacpark.com/live.

Earth Day occurs yearly on April 22^nd. It began in 1970 and signifies the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement. As we are celebrating the 50^th year of recognizing April 22^nd as Earth Day, it’s important to know what it symbolizes. It’s a day of action to promote change in the human behavior and provoke policy changes in regards to helping the environment. Learn more about the history of Earth Day on the official website www.earthday.org.

Pacific Park on the world-famous Santa Monica Pier is committed to being a leader in our industry for green initiatives. This dedication is evident by having the world’s first solar-powered Ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier was first opened in 1996, then converted to solar power just two years later. On sunny days, the Ferris wheel’s power consumption is offset by three solar arrays located on the rooftop of the Park’s midway games and station for the West Coaster. The solar panels make up the iconic silhouette of the Pier and can be seen from the beach as constant reminder that Santa Monica is dedicated to green initiatives and mitigating the environmental impacts of millions of visitors who visit the entertainment destination each year. Through its own grassroots efforts, Pacific Park received the “Excellence in Stewardship of the Natural Environment” award at the 15th annual Sustainable Quality Awards presented by the City of Santa Monica, the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce and the nonprofit Sustainable Works. Read more about Pacific Park’s green initiatives here.

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 Ferris wheel’s light programs can be seen nightly lighting the waters around the Santa Monica Pier and are regularly featured in news broadcasts across the country. Pacific Park accepts special lighting requests from the public as part of a sponsorship arrangement with the Park. Because of the large volume of these requests, not all submissions can be met, and the Park no longer offers pro bono lighting requests. To learn more about these and other opportunities to partner with Pacific Park, please visit www.pacpark.com/sponsorships.

Feature image courtesy of @wedis.