St Patrick’s Day Ferris wheel lighting at the Santa Monica Pier

Published on March 12, 2024

The Santa Monica Pier Ferris Wheel will be lit green on Friday, March 15 to Sunday, March 17 in recognition of St Paddys Day.

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

Pacific Park will be joining other landmark’s 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.

This special lighting event will take place on the evening of Friday, March 15 to Sunday, March 17. The Ferris wheel lights can be seen from dusk until 11:35 PM each evening. Enjoy watching the light program online at pacpark.com/live.

WHAT:
Special Lighting of the Pacific Wheel for St Paddys Day

WHEN:
Friday, March 15 to Sunday, March 17
dusk (around 6 – 7 PM) to midnight

WHERE:
Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier

Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier will “Shamrock and Roll” on St. Patrick’s Day Weekend with a 90-foot-tall shamrock rolling around the world-famous Ferris Wheel, along with displays of lucky Irish green colors, patterns and transitions.

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://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.

About Pacific Park

Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier, LA’s only admission free amusement park, offers 12 amusement rides, 14 midway games, an oceanfront food plaza and seaside retail shopping. Prices and operating hours are subject to change. For more information and operating hours, please call 310-260-8744, visit pacpark.com, and go to Facebook.com/pacificpark, Instagram.com/pacpark or X.com/pacpark.

Turn your stationary cameras to Pacific Park or go to https://pacpark.com/live to See The Wheel! for broadcast of live streaming HD video of the Ferris wheel lights.

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.

 

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Feature image courtesy of @pacpark