A fireworks display that surprised some San Francisco residents on Wednesday night was part of an annual IT conference at AT&T Park and had nothing to do with the transition to a new Bay Bridge, fireworks organizers and transit officials said this morning.
The display, which lit up the sky above the ballpark around 10 p.m., was put on by Pyro Spectaculars, the same company that produced San Francisco’s Fourth of July fireworks show, said show producer Jeff Thomas.
The show was for attendees at VMWorld, a conference presented by Palo Alto-based software company VMWare. The event also featured concerts by Train and Imagine Dragons, according to the event website.
Some residents were caught off guard by the display and wondered if the fireworks were commemorating this week’s Bay Bridge closure and the imminent opening of the much-anticipated new eastern span.
“What’s with the SoMa fireworks in San Francisco at 10 p.m.?” one local Twitter user asked. “Random. Blowing up the Bay Bridge?”
Metropolitan Transportation Commission officials say there are no fireworks planned—nor any major public celebration at all—to mark the opening of the new eastern span next week.
Instead, a low-key ceremony is scheduled for Monday afternoon that will include a chain-cutting and a few speeches, MTC spokesman Randy Rentschler said.
The eastern span is set to open by 5 a.m. Tuesday.
Initially, plans were in the works for a big celebration in which the public would be invited to walk or bike across the new span, but those plans were scrapped after a problem with dozens of anchor bolts on the span left the bridge’s opening date up in the air.
Rentschler said he doesn’t know if there will be a public celebration anytime in the future.
However, he said, “I think a lot of people here feel as though giving the public access to the bridge is an important thing; the bike path represents that.”
Laura Dixon, Bay City News
