CARNAVAL
Carnaval San Francisco is a beloved three–day event featuring a Grand Parade and two–day Festival, on Harrison Street from 16th to 24th Streets, celebrating music and cultural elements from Latin American and Caribbean traditions. It began in 1979 when approximately 300 drummers and dancers, all dressed in colorful traditional costumes, paraded through Precita Park. Since then it has become an annual cultural showcase, attracting over 400,000 individuals to the Mission District to dance the samba, savor traditional foods and just party.
The event draws renowned Carnaval ensembles from Latin America and the Caribbean, and internationally acclaimed headliners, making it the largest multi-ethnic festival in California. Held each May over the Memorial Day weekend, Carnaval San Francisco has built community by uniting a diverse cross-section of the population, celebrating multicultural arts and traditions, and encouraging increased understanding and community pride.
Thousands of performers spend months creating costumes and rehearsing music and dance performances. Family oriented, with an atmosphere of harmony and revelry, Carnaval San Francisco provides a venue for multigenerational contingents, performing artists, and audience members, as well as offering an opportunity for parents and grandparents to introduce and reinforce their respective heritages to younger generations.
The 2016 theme, “¡Viva La Madre Tierra!” , celebrated Mother Earth's prevalence in many cultures worldwide as the manifestation of the natural world. She is the life giver and the sustainer of life; from her womb she gave origin to all the plants, animals, and people.