January 8, 2026
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World’s Only Solar-Powered Ferris Wheel Goes ‘Green’ For Earth Day at Santa Monica Pier

Photo: Pacific Park/Pier Communications via @el_pep562 on Instagram.

Earth Day light show Thursday night

By Chad Winthrop

A Earth Day-themed light show is coming to the Santa Monica Pier’s Ferris wheel, the world’s only solar-powered Ferris wheel.

As part of an annual tradition, Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier’s Ferris wheel will “Green” with a variety of green and blue colors, patterns, and icons, along with a spinning globe for Earth Day on Thursday, April 22. The nine-story Ferris wheel’s 74,000 LED lights will display the show starting at sunset (around 7:30 p.m.) until midnight.

The detailed light show is made possible by a lighting system with 16.7 million color value combinations. In addition, the programming and display software presents imaging up to 24 frames per second to display dynamic, custom, computer-generated lighting entertainment.

According to Pacific Park–which has won a variety of sustainability awards–the Ferris wheel’s enhanced LED lighting provides 81 percent greater energy savings than most Ferris wheel’s traditional incandescent bulbs.

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