Santa Fe College brought back a familiar, groovy bassline with kaleidoscopic colors to its planetarium. Now, there are more shows to enjoy.
“Pink Floyd Fridays” returned to Santa Fe’s Kika Silva Pla planetarium last month, with two shows coming back for the first time in over a year. The event features shows for each of three albums by the 1960s rock band Pink Floyd: “Dark Side of the Moon,” “The Wall” and “Wish You Were Here.”
During the experience, guests sit in a 360-degree dome, which displays three-dimensional pictures and movement throughout each album’s tracks.
The show pulls viewers into the world of Pink Floyd. From calm, still scenes to spinning, fast-paced visuals, the dome makes the audience feel as though they are living the music within the simulation.
“This is the first time we really just started to deviate from just showing ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ in a long time,” said Brian Neiman, a 29-year-old Santa Fe wildlife ecology and conservation sophomore and console operator at the planetarium.
Pink Floyd Fridays have been a tradition for about 12 years, but for the past year and a half, Santa Fe only displayed the “Dark Side of the Moon” show. Neiman was the one who urged to bring back the other two Pink Floyd shows.
Several guests asked Neiman what was coming next at the planetarium, he said, which was a big part in why he wanted to bring older shows back. When he asked guests if they would be interested in seeing other Pink Floyd shows, he said the answer was “overwhelmingly yes.”
Before Nov. 7, the last time “The Wall” was shown at the planetarium was April 2024, he said. The last time “Wish You Were Here” was shown was in 2022. Older shows have not been shown as much due to their dated graphics, and “Dark Side of the Moon” proved to be popular on its own.
“I know that some of the graphics might be a little dated, but I think it would add a little variety,” Neiman said. “I think it would be a good way to spice things up, because we do have a very loyal clientele.”
Bringing back older Pink Floyd shows has also been a way to connect the Santa Fe and Gainesville community, he said. Neiman offered some local businesses flyers to promote the planetarium’s shows, which he said business owners were enthusiastic to display.
The show attracts a variety of audience members, ranging from college students to Gainesville residents. Many older audience members go because they’re fans of the band.
Let the show begin
“Dark Side of the Moon” and “Wish You Were Here” run for 45 minutes, and “The Wall” runs for one hour and 10 minutes. The shows play songs from the album of the presented show, though they do not play every song in a given album.
To produce the shows, Santa Fe partners with Starlight Productions, which adapts the shows to be projected from a machine in the center of the planetarium. Gradient colors, shapes and coherent pictures play along with the songs.
The shows feature an ambiance of colors and motion, similar to a kaleidoscope. “The Wall” show features some subtle references to Pink Floyd’s film adaptation of the album and includes themes such as drug abuse and familial disconnect.
Those themes are especially prevalent in planetarium manager James Albury’s favorite song from the album: “Comfortably Numb.” The song’s meaning is open to interpretation, but many listeners speculate it’s about drug abuse or unpleasant childhood memories.
During the showings of “The Wall,” a character is displayed floating on an endless body of water, sharing feelings of numbness with viewers on a vulnerable level, the theme most widely accepted for the song.
“It’s almost as if you’re experiencing what it’s like for him to be incoherent and then coherent again,” Albury said. “I thought it was a neat interpretation of the song.”
Another reason Albury brought back older shows is because he’s interested in expanding the types of shows at the planetarium, he said. He, along with Neiman, may invest in a laser system that would project a show from a device the size of a microwave oven.
Having a laser system broadens the variety of shows, he said, as the planetarium considers investing in music from Taylor Swift, Beyonce or K-pop groups. The three-dimensional projector used for the Pink Floyd shows has a narrower selection to pick from.
“It would appeal to a lot more people,” Albury said. “Most of the people who come to see Pink Floyd are my age, in their 50s or older, but we do get a lot of young people, too.”
Music reaching beyond generations
Jack Werner, a 22-year-old UF electrical engineering senior, went to see a “Wish You Were Here” show because he’s a Pink Floyd fan who enjoyed seeing “Dark Side of the Moon” at the planetarium a few years ago. He was interested in coming back to the planetarium once he heard they were bringing old Pink Floyd shows back, Werner said.
His favorite part of the shows are the visuals, he said.
“You could just kind of space out and watch it,” Werner said.
Nicole Fong, a 22-year-old UF computer science senior, said she and her boyfriend make it a tradition to see Santa Fe’s Pink Floyd shows every year.
She would be really interested if the planetarium were to show different kinds of shows, she said.
“I do like the Pink Floyd shows a lot, but if they did a ‘90s themed show, I think that would be really fun,” Fong said.
Pink Floyd Fridays will be limited during Santa Fe’s closure for the winter holiday, but it will return in full for the upcoming semester every Friday at 9 p.m.
Contact Leona Masangkay at lmasangkay@alligator.org. Follow them on X @leo_amasangkay.
Leona is a second-year journalism student and the Fall 2025 Santa Fe College reporter. They previously worked on the audience and growth team over the summer as a social media strategist. In their free time, Leona enjoys going to the gym, listening to music and watching Marvel movies.
