SF skies will be bedazzled with colorful lasers for the second weekend in a row, as the Pride Weekend’s big rainbow lasers will return as big red, white, and blue lasers, starting Wednesday night and going through the rest of Independence Day weekend.

Thanks to this current infernal heat wave, 2024 will be one of those rare years when you can actually see the SF’s July 4 fireworks celebration. A couple Bay Area cities with high wildfire risk have had to cancel their fireworks celebrations, so we’re lucky to have the fireworks show here.

But the Embarcadero and Market Street will have their own special Independence Day magic too. The arts group Illuminate just announced they’re shooting red, white, and blue lasers from the Ferry Building, just as they’ve done with rainbow lasers done for Pride Weekend since 2022, and for last year’s APEC Conference. Only these are some extra-powerful laser cannons, as you no doubt saw last weekend — with the rainbow display extra super bright compared to previous years.


The patriotic laser display was announced in a Tuesday night tweet from Illuminate, the same folks behind the soon-to-return Bay Lights on the Bay Bridge, and the projection-mapping shows on the Conservatory of Flowers. The above image seems a rendering, so it’s unclear if the laser cannon will be shooting down Market Street in similar fashion  to last weekend’s Pride display.

But this sure seems like a done deal, considering that SF Mayor London Breed tweeted Wednesday afternoon, “I am thrilled that the Aurora lights will shine bright this week in our City! We’ll continue to bring people together, and celebrate the vibrancy of San Francisco.”

So… apparently this display is being called “Aurora.”

This is similar to what Illuminate did for July 4th in 2023, when they lit up Sutro Tower with red, white, and blue lasers. That display coincided with Sutro Towers 50th anniversary, so this year, Illuminate was apparently looking to take the red, white, and blue lasers elsewhere in town.

The red, white and blue lasers are expected to be fired up at Wednesday night from 9 pm-1 am, on Thursday night of July 4 after the fireworks show from 10:30 pm until dawn the next morning, and Friday through Sunday nights from 9 pm to 1 am.

Related: Sutro Tower Will Have Red, White and Blue Lasers Shooting Through It This Week [SFist]

Image: @KarlTheFog via Twitter