The Pacific Wheel gets spooky this Halloween

Published on October 12, 2020

See a haunted Ferris wheel this Halloween at Pacific Park.

Ghosts and 80-foot pumpkins rarely appear in such public places as the Santa Monica Pier but you just might catch them out and about this Halloween at Pacific Park. The Pacific Wheel Ferris wheel will display a fun and spooky light program the week around Hallow’s Eve and Dia de los Meurtos.

Halloween is an annual celebration observed in many countries on October 31st as a time to remember loved ones who have passed, as well as celebrate the end of harvest season. Similarly, Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a Mexican holiday widely celebrated in Los Angeles on November 1st, involving family and friends gathering to remember those that have they have lost.

Pacific Park will celebrate the Halloween season with fun and spooky patterns and designs on the Pacific Wheel from Saturday, October 24th through Monday, November 2nd. 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.

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 @far_beyond_crazy_.