Friday evening, a dazzling display of lights once again began illuminating the San Francisco Bay Bridge after those lights had been dark for several years.
At a ceremony between the Waterbar and EPIC Steak restaurants on San Francisco’s Embarcadero on Friday, people behind the Bay Lights display, as well as local leaders, turned a switch to officially re-illuminate the LED display. The new-and-improved display is made up of 48,000 lights and is designed to withstand the marine elements around the bridge.
Crowds of people waited along the Embarcadero to watch the lights go on.
The light display on the bridge went dark in 2023 as the organizers started a campaign to raise funds to bring the public art display back. That campaign proved to be successful, the nonprofit Illuminate said that around 1,500 people donated to bring back the Bay Lights, with the smallest gift at $2 and the largest gift coming in at $1 million, according to the nonprofit Illuminate. Leaders with Illuminate said they raised the 11 million dollars entirely through private donations.
Illuminate was central to the original installation back in 2013 and is now driving the Bay Light’s return.
Illuminate’s Chief Visionary Officer Ben Davis told the audience on Friday that they would notice the upgrades to the new lights on the Bay Bridge. Davis emphasized that this public art reflects the moment San Francisco is in right now.
“We can show the world how bright a city full of loving, generous people can shine, that’s the inspiration the world needs right now coming out of San Francisco,” Davis said.
The artist behind the project, Leo Villareal, was there as well on Friday. Villareal said that the sheer size of this project was so large that there were times when he didn’t think it would happen.
“This doesn’t happen just by itself, it’s thousands of people for 15 years to make this piece a reality,” he said.
The light display had local leaders oozing with pride.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie told the crowd at the ceremony on Friday, “I am proud to say that San Francisco is the greatest city in the world.”
Restaurants on the Embarcadero said the lights not only have more people coming in, but also requesting tables with a view.
“We get to walk around the dining room and just watch people in awe, smiling, taking photos, and it just adds these extra elements of emotional light,” said Pete Sittnick, managing partner at Waterbar and EPIC Steak.
People along the Embarcadero said they were impressed with the new lights.
“I think it’s mesmerizing, it’s dope,” said Remo Reyes of San Francisco, who brought a chair out to see the lights unveiled.
“It just makes the city feel alive at night,” Reyes said. “And it’s like no matter what’s going on, you can look up, it reminds you why we love being here, why we love the city.”