An LED letdown for fans of dazzling holiday lights, as the popular LED forest installation Entwined will not be returning to Golden Gate Park for the holiday season in 2024, though there’s still a big Holiday Tree Lighting in the park Thursday night.

We are sorry to report there will be a little less razzle-dazzle in Golden Gate Park for this holiday season. Artist Charles Gadeken’s LED forest installation with color-pulsing illuminated cubes Entwined debuted in Golden Gate Park in December 2020, and became an instant holiday classic during the darkest days of the pandemic. The wildly popular exhibit returned the next couple years from December to early spring, got flooded in early 2023 but still worked and created a magnificent visual effect, and then returned for the 2023 holiday season as the spectacular 30-foot colorful tree Elder Mother.


But that holiday magic is not coming back this year. SFist has learned that the Entwined and Elder Mother works will not be part of the 2024 Golden Gate Park holiday lights attractions.


There will still be the Annual Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony this Thursday, December 5 at McLaren Lodge from 4-8 pm. That will still feature the lighting of the famed Uncle John’s Tree (seen below), as it has for the last 95 years. And there will still be a holiday festival complete with carnival rides, a train, live music, and food trucks. But looking at the event's official map above, Entwined and Elder Mother are not listed among the attractions.


And artist Charles Gadeken confirmed to SFist Monday morning that the dazzling LED tree display will not be in the park for the holidays this year. “We are trying hard to see if we can bring it back next year,” he told us.

Additionally, an SF Rec and Parks representative said in a Monday email to SFist that "Instead of Entwined/Elder Mother, this year Illuminate has activated the Solar Arch." That refers to a new LED illuminated arch installation by the controversial SF artist fnnch that was installed in early November.


But the light-up trees of Entwined are not in mothballs. Several of those trees currently spend their nights blinking away some 400 miles south in Laguna Beach, California. That display went up in late October, and will remain glowing at night through January 31, 2025.

Image: Joe Kukura, SFist

And of course, several of the Entwined "shrubs" are still on display at Civic Center’s UN Plaza right here in San Francisco. That display is expected to remain and be lit up nightly through 2025, and possibly longer.

Note: This post has been updated with comment from the SF Rec and Parks Department.

Related: The LED Forest ‘Entwined’ Has Now Sprouted Up at Civic Center, Too [SFist]

Image: @RecParkSF via Twitter