Parades, Holiday Events & Fairs San Francisco 2019

Major cities across the U.S. flaunt their pride in June, but San Francisco is known for having the oldest celebration in the country. The festivities begin on Saturday in the city’s Civic Center Plaza and continue through Sunday morning. In 2018, nearly a million people turned out for the weekend, including 50,000 marchers and 282 participating groups. The 2019 theme is “Generations of Resistance.” Next: June 29-30, 2019

Fleet Week is most commonly associated with the Blue Angels air shows and naval ship tours on the San Francisco Bay, but there’s a lot more to this military personnel appreciation week. Businesses offer military personnel discounts on food and drinks, and, with a little help from the Fleet Week app, local residents can buy a sailor a burger and take a selfie with a sailor. Between visitors heading to the area for the festivities and locals heading outside to enjoy warm weather and sunny skies, Fleet Week generates more than $100 million for the San Francisco economy. Next: October 6-14, 2019

San Francisco’s first Chinese New Year Parade was in the 1860s. By the 1970s, it had grown from a small celebration into an event that required support from city services. In 1987, when local news stations started broadcasting the parade, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce opted to lean into corporate sponsorships and expand the slate of activities—the Flower Market Fair, the Miss Chinatown USA Pageant and Coronation Ball, and the Community Street Fair—leading up to the parade. Today, the San Francisco Chinese New Year Festival & Parade, sponsored by Southwest Airlines, is the largest celebration of its kind in the United States, attracting more than three million spectators and television viewers throughout the U.S., Canada, and Asia. Next: February 8, 2020

Not everyone escapes town for Memorial Day weekend. In San Francisco, more than 400,000 people each year flock to the Mission for the Carnaval celebration, a free, family-friendly party highlighting the diverse Latin American and Caribbean roots of the Mission. The parade includes more than 50 music and dance groups, plus floats depicting multicultural themes. Brazilian-style “escola” samba schools with as many as 300 members dance through the streets in fantastic feathered headdresses or sweeping Bahia skirts, while Caribbean contingents perform the music and dance of the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad. Next: May 23-24, 2020

San Francisco hosts hundreds of kid-friendly events. The Folsom Street Fair is not among those. Organizers have dubbed this clothing-optional fair as “the world’s biggest leather event.” It draws as many as 250,000 fetish enthusiasts annually to a 13-block stretch of Folsom Street for “self-expression and exciting entertainment.” Whips and chains at the fair literally pay off for local L.G.B.T.Q. organizations, according to Patrick Finger, executive director of Folsom Street Events; the nonprofit has collected and distributed almost $7 million in charitable donations from the event. Next: September 29, 2019

Now in its 65th year, the North Beach Festival draws more than 70,000 people to San Francisco’s answer to Little Italy. This year’s event will feature some 125 arts and crafts booths, gourmet food booths, two stages of live entertainment, poetry readings, Italian street painting, beverage gardens, kids’ chalk art areas, and—because it’s San Francisco, where there are more dogs than children—two blessing of the animals ceremonies at the National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi. Next: June 15-16, 2019

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Combining razzle-dazzle with holiday cheer, the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus performs three sold-out Christmas Eve shows at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre each year. In 2018, more than 140 people participated on stage in the chorus, as band members, and in production roles, while more than 3,800 spectators attended the three performances. “It simply wouldn't be the holidays without the bodacious extravaganzas that could only come from the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus,” says chorus artistic director Tim Seeling. “They sing, they dance, they are perfectly irreverent. They've been giving holiday performances for 41 years. They've got it down pat.” Next: December 24, 2019

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The most unusual Easter celebration in the Bay Area, the non-religious event starts with a kid-friendly Easter egg hunt and bonnet contest before concluding with the infamous Hunky Jesus and Foxy Mary contests. When the kids go home, the questionable dance moves and crowns of thorns come out. The contests are generally held in a public park, with Dolores Park ruling as the geographic winner over the last few years. Next: April 12, 2020

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The Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival is one of California’s most prominent celebrations of Asian traditions, and the second-largest cherry blossom celebration in the U.S. outside of Washington, D.C. Developed to showcase the color and grace of the Japanese culture and the diversity of the Japanese American Community, more than 220,000 people attend the festival each year. Cultural demonstrations rolled into the event include bonsai and dance lessons, Shoyukai Calligraphy explanations, an appearance by the Cherry Blossom Festival Queen, and performances by the Taiko Dojo drummers. Next: Spring 2020

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It all begins with the magic and allure of the pumpkin. Combine that with a rustic small town and the feel-good orange fervor that washes over everything around Half Moon Bay in the autumn, and you have a recipe for a festival that’s almost as sweet as pumpkin pie. The Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival includes gourd-related activities like the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off and carving, as well as costume contests, pumpkin-eating challenges, and all the pumpkin-flavored foods and drinks imaginable. More than 250,000 people enjoy the festival each year, generating more than $500,000 for civic projects and community service organizations along the coast. Next: October 19-20, 2019

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The eponymous Edward of the Edwardian Ball is not the British king from 1901 to 1910, but American writer and artist Edward Gorey—which explains the steampunk tones, saloon-girl skirts, and leather harnesses prevalent in revelers’ attire for the ball. (It’s worth noting that the dress code for the event isn’t particularly strict; organizers simply ask that guests “step out of ordinary life” to enjoy the celebration.) More than just dancing, this is a ball that embraces performance: Expect a touch of burlesque, a hint of contortion, and at least a few surprises from the Bay Area’s deep bench of circus artists. The ball will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2020 at the Regency Ballroom. Next: January 24-25, 2020

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Walking into the Dickens Fair is like crossing a portal to the Victorian era. For a month each year, San Francisco’s Cow Palace is reinvented as 19th-century London, with performers taking on roles as street vendors, music hall proprietors, and shopkeepers—complete with costumes and hackneyed accents. While guests can certainly dress up for the occasion, the fair is equally welcoming of modern time travelers popping back in time for a spot of tea or a turkey leg. Next: November 23-December 22, 2019

New to the list
The Oakland Museum of California’s annual Days of the Dead Community Celebrations bring the tradition of Días de los Muertos to life through music, dance, art, and family-friendly activities. In 2019, the museum will host its 25th annual celebration, with an artisanal mercado, community-created altars, hands-on art and food demonstrations, calavera (skeleton) face painting, and live performances in the museum gardens. There will also be an accompanying exhibition, “¡El Movimiento Vivo! Chicano Roots of Days of the Dead,” on view in the museum's art gallery, exploring how Days of the Dead traditions inspire social and political change. Next: October 19-20, 2019