https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/28/msg-sphere-las-vegas-london-venue-concert-hall-sleep-light-pollution
East London residents are being warned that light pollution from a controversial huge new concert venue – the MSG Sphere – will be “like a sun on Earth”. The message comes from neighbours of a Las Vegas version, more than 5,000 miles away.
Plans for the new concert hall in Stratford took a step closer to realisation last week when the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) approved plans for the advertising display covered with more than one million light emitting diodes that will show videos and adverts from dawn until late.
A similar building is scheduled to open in Las Vegas later this year, and last week the company behind the project tested out the lighting display. “It’s almost like building a sun on Earth,” said Las Vegas local Billy Cline, 36, after he saw the lights at the tip of the 111 metre-high spherical building being tested two miles away from his balcony.
Cline, who works in public engagement, predicts that once the Las Vegas sphere is completed it will increase light pollution coming through his curtains exponentially, especially with moving images. Some residents, he believes, will invest in big shutters to block out the light.
Cline adds that Las Vegas is “a city known for its light” and that he feels such a structure would never get the go-ahead in other US cities: “I don’t think this MSG Sphere would be built in San Francisco or parts of Los Angeles or Brooklyn. I couldn’t imagine something that bright in a residential area.”
Like a sun on Earth