Biggest ‘Lantern of Hope’ wows 30,000 spectators

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO— With mall goers from as far as Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija and Bataan, all came to see one of SM City Pampanga’s grandest celebrations to welcome the Yuletide Season.

And all it took was 12,232 dancing LED lights and on-land and aerial fireworks in a 10-minute pyrotechnic music show to fill SM City Pampanga’s Amphitheatre and surrounding parking lots with a crowd of more than 30,000 people over the weekend.

And at the center of it all was the 65 meter (213 feet) tall Ferris wheel, which was turned into the “Biggest Lantern of Hope” at around 6:45 PM of Saturday night, as it lit the night sky with dancing lights and fireworks. There were also light shows and dancers sporting neon lights to the delight of hundreds of spectators.

Dubbed as the Pampanga Eye, the biggest Ferris Wheel in the country was turned into a gigantic lantern to the delight of spectators from different parts of the province and the region.

SM City Pampanga Public Relations Manager Rain Cervantes said that the occasion is part of the mall’s participation in the celebrations of the Aldo Ning Kapampangan, the province’s founding anniversary celebrations.

It is also a way of highlighting the Yuletide Season for mall goers and spectators. The event is now on its second year and was first turned into the giant lantern spectacle in 2015. Cervantes said that the Pampanga Eye will continue to show its kaleidoscopic lights until Christmas. The Pampanga Eye is part of the Sky Ranch, the first amusement park in North Luzon.