New light show to bring Golden Gate Park's Temple of Music to life for park's anniversary

New light show to bring Golden Gate Park's Temple of Music to life for park's anniversaryPhoto: Golden Gate Park Bandstand
Camden Avery
Published on March 09, 2020

Next month, the Spreckels Temple of Music is getting re-dressed with a semi-permanent light installation, as part of the park's sesquicentenary

The Temple, also known as the Golden Gate Park Bandshell, is 120 years old and stands at the center of the park's Music Concourse, flanked by the Academy of Science, the deYoung Museum and the Japanese Tea Garden.

Often a site for outdoor music and theater performances, the shell was built in 1900 to augment the rest of the concourse, part of the 1894 Midwinter Exposition. It withstood both the 1906 and Loma Prieta earthquakes.

The light installation, which will be assembled at the end of March and early April, is a collaboration with Illuminate SF, the organization behind the Bay Lights project and 2017's floral-and-psychedelia-inspired projection on the Conservatory of Flowers, less than half a mile from the Music Concourse.

A rendering of the installation as it's expected to appear. | Image: Illuminate SF

Approved early last month by San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, the light installation will include projections against and inside the dome of the bandshell, as well as a lit installation across the proscenium with a Harvey Milk quotation: "Hope will never be silent."

The lights are currently approved for a two-year run, while other improvements to the facility will also include a permanent upgrade of the stage's risers.

The changes will "dramatically enhance the Bandshell as a performance space and make it far more accessible to smaller arts and community groups who would not have the budget to bring in their own sound and lighting systems for performances," said Rec & Park general manager Phil Ginsburg, in a statement.

According to Rec & Park, the improvements are also part of a broader effort to expand arts programming on the concourse.

That programming will begin with an April 4 "community day," which will kick off the 150th anniversary park-wide and include over 30 performers at the bandshell.

Rec & Park spokesperson Madison Sink said plans for a celebration to debut the light show are in progress, but details and a date have yet to be set.