Rainbow Lasers Up Market Street to Return for Pride Weekend
The pink triangle atop Twin Peaks may be going back to analog this year, but the laser-beam rainbow up Market Street will return for Pride Weekend, and maybe you'll even be able to see it if the fog cooperates.
The non-profit behind the Bay Lights, Illuminate the Arts, is apparently not a part of the pink triangle installation on Twin Peaks this year. Organizer Patrick Carney told Hoodline this week that they will be going back to the former canvas version, which is mostly visible in the daylight.
But back for its second year will be the installation titled WELCOME which Illuminate touts as "the world's largest Pride flag." The piece involves lasers representing each color of the Rainbow Flag, each aimed from the Ferry Building up Market Street at a three-degree angle, with the idea being that the beams reach all the way up the 4.1-mile stretch to Twin Peaks.
ICYMI: #WelcomeSF will be back June 23-25🌈In collaboration w/ @KarlTheFog we'll be blasting the world's largest pride flag 4.1 miles down Market Street b/c we are San Francisco👏+We're hosting a FREE gathering to celebrate #pride on 6/23!More details to come soon🏳️🌈#SFPride pic.twitter.com/UDnspoyOrv
Last year, though, the rainbow lasers were not very visible during much of Pride Weekend unless you were all the way downtown near their origin — the problem, of course, being Karl the Fog. Also, the lights maybe kind of dissipated as they rose upward — and if you were anywhere past, say, Sixth or Seventh streets I'm not sure you would have seen them.
There were plenty of pictures, though, that suggested you could seem from everywhere.
The piece was designed and engineered last year by Peak Design, whose founder Peter Dering said he wanted to create a visual representation of SF's long history as an LGBTQ mecca.
"San Francisco has always been our home," Dering told KRON4. "And we’re proud to celebrate the LGBTQ community and remind the world what SF stands for: Love and inclusion."
There will be a free gathering downtown to celebrate the lighting of WELCOME this year, on Friday, June 23, and it will be lit through Sunday, June 25.
"Stay tuned for more details, but this year's activation will include music, circus performers, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Dykes on Bikes and a laser installation that will also serve as a worthy kick-off of Illuminate's 'Summer of Awe,'" the organization says.
The lasers were lit from sundown to midnight (starting around 9:30 p.m.) last year, so we can expect the same this year.
Hopefully, though, the fog will cooperate.
Illuminate, meanwhile, continues to raise funds to re-light the Bay Lights, which were shut off in early March due to weathering and deterioration of the LEDs. The massive installation on the Bay Bridge by artist Leo Villareal, in which patterns of light danced on the cables on the northern side of the western span for nearly 10 years. The LEDs were supposed to be good for 10 to 12 years when the thing was "permanently" installed in 2016, however they only made it for seven, and the organization was seeking another $11 million to revive the thing once more.
Previously: A Miles-Long Rainbow Light Display Shines Right Through Downtown San Francisco
Top image via Illuminate the Arts
Previously: