The Santa Monica Pier Ferris Wheel will be lit red and gold on Thursday, March 30 to Sunday, April 2 ahead of the weekend’s WWE WrestleMania event at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
WrestleMania was first held in 1985, and has been held every year since then, except for 2020, when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event has been held in a variety of cities throughout the United States and Canada, and has also been held in Europe, Asia, and Australia. WrestleMania is the flagship pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event of WWE, the world’s largest professional wrestling promotion. It is held annually between mid-March and mid-April, and is considered to be the Super Bowl of professional wrestling. This year, WrestleMania will take place at SoFi Stadium here in Los Angeles on April 1 & 2.
In partnership with Sofi Stadium and Hollywood Park, the Pacific Wheel will be lit in red and gold and feature “WWE” this Thursday and Friday to celebrate Wrestlemania’s return to Los Angeles. This special lighting event will take place on the evenings of Thursday, March 30 through Sunday, April 2. The Ferris wheel lights can be seen from dusk until 11:35 PM each evening. Enjoy watching the light program online at www.pacpark.com/live.
WHAT:
Special Lighting of the Pacific Wheel for WWE Wrestlemania
WHEN:
Thursday, March 30 to Sunday, April 2
dusk (around 7 PM) to midnight
WHERE:
Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier
WrestleMania is one of the most popular professional wrestling events in the world. It is estimated that over 100 million people watch WrestleMania every year. The event is also a major revenue generator for WWE, with each event generating millions of dollars in ticket sales and pay-per-view buys. The event is a multi-match competition, with the main event usually being a championship match. The event also features a variety of other matches, including tag team matches, women’s matches, and celebrity matches.
WrestleMania has been the site of some of the most iconic moments in professional wrestling history. These include Hulk Hogan body-slamming Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III, Stone Cold Steve Austin defeating The Rock at WrestleMania X-Seven, and The Undertaker defeating Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 25. WrestleMania is a major cultural event, and has been featured in a variety of media, including television, film, and music. The event has also been referenced in popular culture, such as in the film “The Simpsons” and the television show “Saturday Night 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.
Feature image courtesy of @rughead8