Pride Weekend Lasers to Stretch Along All of Market Street, Now With 20 Beams

A rainbow of laser light is set to return to the sky above Market Street this weekend, as San Francisco arts organization Illuminate stages what is fast becoming a yearly Pride Month fixture, one as recognizable as the Pink Triangle on Twin Peaks.

The display will run from sunset to sunrise and stretch the full length of the corridor. Beams will start at the Ferry Building, follow the 4.1-mile street and continue over Twin Peaks. This year's installation uses 20 lasers, up from 12 last Pride and well beyond the six lasers, one for each color of the LGBTQ+ Pride flag, used in the 2022 debut piece, "Welcome."

The number 20 is deliberate. It honors the 20th anniversary of the "Winter of Love," the month when San Francisco City Hall issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of state and federal law.

Illuminate founder Ben Davis said the organization has substantially reworked the technology behind the piece. "We're radically redefining the hardware and software to this expression," he said. He added that the long-term hope is for Market Street and the Pride lasers to become, for Pride Weekend, what the ball drop is to New York City on New Year's Eve.

Friday's debut will include a ceremony at the base of the laser cannon. Veteran LGBTQ+ rights advocate Cleve Jones is expected to officiate recommitment ceremonies for two activist couples who married during the Winter of Love, only to have their marriages voided by the California Supreme Court a month later.

Davis describes the laser installation as a "monumental art form" in its own right. Illuminate has also been the impetus behind other large public art projects, including the Golden Mile on the car-free stretch of Golden Gate Park's JFK Drive and the forthcoming return of Leo Villareal's Bay Lights. The lasers are part of the group's broader "Summer of Awe," which also features another projection through the rose window of Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill, this time with longer public viewing hours.

Illuminate has launched a $150,000 crowdfunding campaign to bring back the Market Street array, but Davis told The Standard the return is all but certain. "This is happening either way," he said. "We're eating into our seed corn to make this possible."

The group last beamed lasers over Market Street in November during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Those beams appeared in softer pastel shades rather than the brighter Pride flag colors, and onlookers noted striking effects when it rained.

Rain is unlikely in late June, but San Francisco's weather could still help. "Lasers tend to get more interesting the thicker the fog gets," Davis said, adding that the group has named Karl the Fog as the artist of record. "We're just the people putting photons in space."