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Carnaval San Francisco

Celebrate Carnaval SF this May 24 & 25

Carnaval San Francisco is the largest multicultural festival in the West Coast, bringing together San Francisco's Latino, Caribbean and African Diasporic traditions. Support the Mission District's small businesses throughout the festivities!Go to the official Carnaval SF website

Shop and dine through the Mission

Previous parades

Watch the coverage of the 2023 Carnaval San Francisco Grand Parade.

Carnaval's generic logo

About Carnaval San Francisco

Carnaval San Francisco is the largest and longest-running multicultural celebration in California, with over 400,000 people in attendance every year. 

The free, two–day Festival covers 17 blocks on Harrison Street between 16th & 24th Streets, with five main stages, 60 local performing artists, and 300 vendors. The festival includes international food, dancing, sampling sites and entertainment for families, couples and friends of all ethnic, social and economic backgrounds. In the 45 years of existence, the celebration has welcomed luminaries like Celia Cruz, SANTANA, the Neville Brothers, Tito Puentes, Oscar de Leon, INDIA, and Los Tigres del Norte. 

The Carnaval San Francisco theme for 2025 is Afro Mundo: African Diaspora in the Americas. AfroMundo stands as a powerful testament to the resilience, joy, strength, and enduring spirit of the African diaspora, a people who have profoundly shaped the cultural fabric of the Americas. In the realms of dance, song, and music, the African diaspora has enriched the world with some of its most influential and transformative creations. The rhythmic pulse of African drums, once used to communicate across vast distances, became the heartbeat of countless musical genres.

The Grand Parade is a brilliant 20-block procession of 60+ contingents, most of which feature beautifully adorned floats depicting rich multicultural themes. Brazilian-style escola samba schools with up to 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. Other parade groups include MexicanAztec performers, traditional African drummers, Native American dancers, giant puppets and folkloric groups representing Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Bolivia. Over 2,000 dancers participate in the parade every year.

The Grand Parade will start at the corner of 24th and Bryant streets, proceed west to Mission Street, head north on Mission to 15th Street, turn east on 15th and conclude at South Van Ness.  

illustration of a carnaval dancer

45+ years of Carnaval SF

The organizers of Carnaval San Francisco envision a world where harmony and revelry unite all people and where Latin American, Caribbean, and African traditions and cultures are preserved and celebrated for generations to come.Read about the early days of Carnaval SF

About

This page is part of Shop Dine SF, an initiative of the Office of Small Business, and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

Its aim is to bring attention to the local businesses and neighborhood corridors.

Hosting a Carnaval event that spotlights small businesses? Email shopdinesf@sfgov.org to add it to this page.

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