AP Taylor Swift was a big draw last year at the Ward Beecher Planetarium’s Rock the Dome weekend, and this year’s event will include three laser light shows choreographed to the music of the pop star.

Rock the Dome did just that last year at Ward Beecher Planetarium.

“We ended up putting close to 1,600 people through the room in the two days, and we only have 144 seats,” said Curt Spivey, planetarium engineer. “The Taylor Swift shows, all were at capacity. The Queen shows were at capacity, and almost every other show had 100 people in them.”

The laser light shows accompanied by popular music returned to the educational space last year after a five-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and 2023 fire that damaged the planetarium.

Rock the Dome 2026 takes place Friday and Saturday with 14 shows over two days.

Not surprisingly, those sold-out shows last year will be among the ones making an encore, including three opportunities to listen to Taylor Swift while watching lasers. However, most of the soundtrack for the weekend will feature songs older than Swift’s 36 years.

“There’s a standard rule in planetariums — you cannot do a laser weekend without having a Pink Floyd show,” Spivey said. “That goes back like 40 or 50 years, so you’ve got to do a Floyd show. Classic rock tends to do better than lots of other things. Because the Queen show was so popular, we brought that back. We’ve been doing Led Zeppelin, but we couldn’t decide which classic rock artist we wanted to do, so we went with a new one called ‘Rock Monsters’ this year, which is a bunch of different heavy groups like Guns ‘N Roses and Metallica and things like that in a montage. We can have more people see more things that way.

“And I did rely on my students for some things. We knew Taylor Swift would be popular. I have two Swifties, who are two of my students who help out. They suggested we do laser ABBA this year. They thought that would be popular. So we brought ABBA in this year to see how it flies. And then my boss is a huge progressive rock fan, so we have to do at least one Rush (show) to assuage him.”

Even with the returning artists, Spivey tried to offer returning visitors something new. Pink Floyd will close out the night both days with shows at 10 p.m., but this year’s show, “Welcome to the Machine,” draws from several albums in the Pink Floyd catalog instead of focusing on “Dark Side of the Moon.” And the planetarium’s lighting system also complements the laser production, which adds variables to each show.

“There’ll be two people at the back being light DJs, basically, while the show’s running, so every show is a little unique, because everybody has their own artistic touch on the shows as far as the side lights go,” he said.

The five-year lapse certainly helped attendance last year — attendance was up for all planetarium shows in 2024-25 — but Rock the Dome has always been popular.

“The laser shows are one of the most popular things we do, going back 10 years now,” Spivey said. “It’s a good way to bring new people who haven’t seen the planetarium into the room. We like doing events like this to get us exposed to a new audience.”

The planetarium’s social media accounts had a noticeable increase in followers with last year’s event.

While admission traditionally is free for planetarium events, a donation of at least $1 is requested during Rock the Dome to offset the cost of renting the laser system needed for the light shows.

Planetarium employees will distribute tokens on a first-come, first-served basis about two hours before each show. Anyone who receives a token will be guaranteed admission. Only one token will be given to each person (someone can’t ask for four for a group of friends arriving later). Only 144 seats are available for each show, Because of the full schedule both Friday and Saturday, additional shows cannot be added to accommodate overflow crowds.

If you go …

WHAT: Rock the Dome

WHEN: 6 to 11 p.m. Friday and 2 to 11 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Ward Beecher Planetarium, Youngstown State University

HOW MUCH: A $1 donation is requested to offset the rental cost of the laser system. For more information, go to www.wbplanetarium.org or call 330-941-1370.

ROCK THE DOME SCHEDULE: The Beatles, 6 p.m. Friday and 3 and 6 p.m. Saturday; Taylor Swift, 7 p.m. Friday and 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday; Rock Monsters, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; Queen, 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday; Pink Floyd “Welcome to the Machine,” 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; Rush, 4 p.m. Saturday and ABBA, 5 p.m. Saturday.