The Bay Lights to Return Friday, March 20, 2026
Photos/Video available here
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — February 19, 2026 — Arts nonprofit Illuminate announced today that The Bay Lights — the iconic installation by artist Leo Villareal on the western span of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge — will return with a Grand Lighting on Friday, March 20, 2026.
The Bay Lights, which illuminated the northern cable plane for a decade before coming down in 2023, are being replaced with a new, custom-engineered LED light system designed to perform beautifully over time in the bridge’s demanding marine environment.
“The Bay Lights belong to San Francisco,” said Ben Davis, Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Illuminate. “They’re a reminder that beauty can live at the scale of infrastructure — and that awe can be part of a city’s identity.”
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie welcomed the return of the installation as both a cultural and civic milestone:
“The Bay Lights are an iconic symbol of San Francisco and the entire Bay Area,” said Mayor Lurie. “I’m thrilled to welcome back the light installation that will once again bring beauty and pride to our city and the whole region.”
The March 20 date will also honor the 92nd birthday of Willie L. Brown, a longtime supporter of the project and the former San Francisco mayor for whom the bridge’s western span is formally named.
The new installation has been engineered from the ground up to meet the extreme demands of the Bay Bridge environment. Musco Lighting, a global leader in large-scale lighting systems, led the engineering and fabrication of the new system. In total, 48,000 LEDs were installed as part of the project. The return of The Bay Lights marks the beginning of a new long-term chapter — rebuilt from the ground up to endure for years to come.
The March 20 Grand Lighting will debut the primary north-facing installation — the historic view from San Francisco long associated with The Bay Lights. A second phase of the project, designed to expand visibility to additional Bay Area communities, will be introduced following completion of final safety testing and agency review.
“This is not a retrofit — it’s a purpose-built system,” said Adam DeJong, Project Manager at Musco Lighting. “Everything has been designed specifically for the Bay Bridge environment: the wind loads, the salt air, the vibration, and the need for long-term reliability. The goal is a system that performs beautifully — and endures.”
Artist Leo Villareal, whose light sculptures explore time, movement, and collective experience, reflected on the return of the installation:
“I think of The Bay Lights as a way of making invisible systems visible,” said Villareal. “The bridge is already full of rhythm, traffic, weather, motion, time — and the light responds to that complexity through abstraction. It’s not about decoration. It’s about revealing the pulse of its location.”
The relighting was made possible through an extraordinary network of philanthropic leaders and more than 1,300 individual contributors who funded the $11 million project entirely through private support. Donor JP Conte, a key funder of the original Bay Lights in 2012, is among many who have stepped in again to support the effort.
“Supporting The Bay Lights has always been about investing in the soul of San Francisco,” said Conte. “This is a gift to the public — a reminder that wonder still belongs in the center of civic life.”
Since its debut, The Bay Lights has become one of the most photographed and shared public artworks in the world, experienced by residents and visitors across the Bay Area and far beyond.
Additional details about the public Grand Lighting moment and viewing opportunities will be announced in the coming weeks.
About Illuminate
Illuminate is a San Francisco–based nonprofit dedicated to creating monumental public art that brings people together through awe. Reaching more than 20 million residents and visitors annually, Illuminate produces original works that are always free, open to all, and rooted in generosity.
About Leo Villareal
Leo Villareal is a light artist based in New York City. He works with pixels and binary code to create complex, rhythmic compositions in light. Firmly rooted in abstraction, his approach uses layered sequencing that results in open-ended and subjective visual experiences. His body of work includes gallery-scale light sculptures, site-specific installations, and monumental public artworks such as The Bay Lights in San Francisco.
About Musco Lighting
Musco Lighting is the world leader in sports and large-area lighting solutions and is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2026. Its projects are found in more than 135 countries, including neighborhood fields, major stadiums and arenas, international airports, and iconic landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore.
The Bay Lights – Media Background & Q&A
The Bay Lights is a monumental light artwork spanning 1.8 miles along the northern cable plane of the western span of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. Created by internationally acclaimed light artist Leo Villareal and produced by the nonprofit Illuminate, the installation transforms one of the world’s great infrastructure projects into a living work of public art.
The Bay Lights project was initiated by Ben Davis, Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Illuminate, who invited Leo Villareal to propose an artwork for the Bay Bridge and has guided the project through every incarnation.
Using choreographed sequences of white LED light, Villareal’s composition responds to rhythm, pattern, and abstraction — revealing what he describes as “the pulse of the place.”
When is the Grand Lighting?
Friday, March 20, 2026. The Grand Lighting ceremony will be broadcast live on social media.
What is new about this 2026 installation?
The 2026 return is a complete rebuild — not a repair.
• 48,000 custom-engineered LEDs
• A system designed specifically for wind load, salt air, vibration, and long-term reliability
• Engineered and fabricated by Musco Lighting
Why did The Bay Lights go dark in 2023?
After nearly 10 years of nightly operation, the original system experienced widespread wear from wind, salt corrosion, moisture, and vibration. LED failures increased over time, making long-term operation unsustainable.
Rather than patch a deteriorating system, Illuminate chose to pause the installation and pursue a comprehensive rebuild designed for durability.
Will the lights be on every night?
Yes. The Bay Lights will illuminate nightly from dusk until dawn.
What is TBL360?
TBL360 is a design enhancement that expands who can experience The Bay Lights.
An additional strand of LEDs has been installed on the inward-facing side of the same northern cable plane, allowing the artwork to be visible from additional Bay Area viewpoints, including communities that previously had limited visibility.
This additional strand of lights can be controlled (turned off) independently of the original Bay Lights art installation and Caltrans will be able to turn these lights off if necessary.
The goal is to bring the gift of public art more equitably across the region while maintaining the bridge’s safety and integrity.
Will TBL360 be part of the March 20 Grand Lighting?
The March 20 event will feature the primary north-facing Bay Lights installation — the iconic view recognized around the world.
TBL360 represents a second design phase that expands visibility across the Bay. That phase will be introduced following completion of final safety review and testing in coordination with traffic engineers and relevant agencies.
Safety is the first priority. The inward-facing lights associated with TBL360 are angled away from drivers’ direct line of sight, and Illuminate is continuing a structured review process to ensure safe operation before it is introduced.
Did TBL360 change the project budget?
Yes. TBL360 increased the overall project cost by approximately 5%.
How long will this installation last?
The new system is warranted for 10 years, with the goal of long-term reliability in the Bay’s demanding conditions.
Who funded the project?
The $11 million project was funded entirely through private philanthropy and grassroots support, with more than 1,300 people contributing to bring The Bay Lights back.
A Note of Gratitude from Founder & CVO Ben Davis:
Fifteen years ago, when the vision of the Bay Bridge as a canvas of light first revealed itself to me, I had no idea what a life-changing, life-affirming adventure it would become.
One of the truths I’ve learned along the way is this: when you surrender to a transformational idea, you are transformed as part of the bargain. The idea changes you. It asks more of you. It introduces you to people you would never otherwise meet. It reveals both your limits and your capacity.
And it gives back far more than it takes.
As The Bay Lights prepares to shine again over our City of Awe, I am filled with gratitude.
Much of the beauty you see is attributable to artist Leo Villareal’s extraordinary interpretation of our early conversations. But having been with this project every step of the way, I know the light runs much deeper than the LEDs themselves.
What shines nightly from the bridge is the collective hope, dreams, and effort of thousands of caring people.
Beauty at scale is hard to muster. The systems we create are designed to say no to beauty. So my first wave of gratitude goes to the scores of public servants across more than a dozen agencies who found a way to take systems built to prevent risk and carefully, responsibly reconstruct them so we could say yes to something uplifting and shared.
The next wave goes to the engineers and technologists who reimagined what’s possible in one of the harshest environments imaginable – suspended over San Francisco Bay, on a bridge that vibrates constantly, battered by salt air, wind, rain, hail, lightning, grit, and time.
It goes to the construction management leaders who held the whole enterprise together with discipline and care. It goes to the installation teams who hang suspended in baskets on the side of the bridge in the middle of the night, turning vision into reality while dangling over the bay.
And it goes to the extraordinary generosity and philanthropy that makes public art at this scale possible at all.
On March 20, we will fill the bridge with light once again.
And for the next decade, more than 20 million residents and visitors each year will find comfort, awe, and perhaps a little reassurance in that glow.
I could not be more grateful. I could not feel more blessed by the people who have walked this improbable path together.
See you on the waterfront.
