SF City Hall Lights Up for Thanksgiving (Nov. 25-27)

EVENT UPDATE: There are no upcoming events known for this event series - please check the organizer website for any updates.

San Francisco’s City Hall and its 220+ state-of-the-art LED lighting fixtures will illuminate in beautiful shades of amber in celebration of Thanksgiving, November 25-27, 2021.

It’s a great photo opportunity to capture San Francisco’s iconic dome lit up for the occasion.

The schedule is always tentative for the holiday lighting and subject to change when there are special events and the building is lit in honor of those. Check sfgov.org/cityhall/lighting for the latest updates.

About City Hall’s Exterior Lighting

Every evening at sunset, over 220 state-of-the-art LED lighting fixtures illuminate City Hall’s exterior. Normally, a soft white glow shows off the play of light and shadow on the full façade and dome. Frequently, special plaza façade lighting schemes honor or celebrate events, seasons, and holidays.

Until 2016, the lights were standard incandescent bulbs. Changing their colors was expensive and time-consuming; two to three building staff members, plus a crew of four staff from a lighting contractor, spent hours crawling in and out of office windows and onto the rooftop to install colored theatrical gels on each of the 220 fixtures, even in bad weather. For removal of the gels, the whole process happened in reverse.

Power use is now much lower, and with just an occasional cleaning, maintaining the fixtures is much easier: LED bulbs last as long as 20 years.

This Month’s Lighting Events

11/7              Red/white/blue – Veteran’s Day Parade
11/11            Red/white/blue – Veteran’s Day
11/12           TBD – SFCM Bowes Center Opening
11/16           Purple – World Pancreatic Cancer Day
11/17           Purple – World Prematurity Day
11/18           Purple/red – Native American Heritage Month
11/19           Blue – UNESCO World Childrens’ Day
11/20           Blue/white/pink – Transgender Day of Remembrance
11/21           Yellow/black – World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Victims
11/24           Orange – International Day of Elimination of Violence against Women
11/25-11/27 Shades of Amber – Happy Thanksgiving!
11/28           Blue/White – 1st Night of Hannukah