ABOUT

Carnaval San Francisco cultivates and celebrates the diverse Latin American, Caribbean and African Diasporic roots of the Mission District and the San Francisco Bay Area. We accomplish our mission through dance, music, the visual arts and by creating spaces for community learning, school–based education, and advocacy.

Now in its fourth decade of celebration, Carnaval San Francisco has been an opportunity for many cultures to come together in one spirit to share their creative expression.

Come celebrate with us at our FREE 2–day family festival in San Francisco’s Mission District where we will showcase the very best Latin American and Caribbean cultural arts and traditions. Carnaval San Francisco is the largest multi–cultural celebration on the West Coast.

Mission, Vision & Values

OUR MISSION

Carnaval San Francisco, the largest multicultural festival in the West Coast, is a project that CANA organizes, with the goal of educating people on the Latino, Caribbean and African Diasporic traditions of the Mission District and the San Francisco Bay Area. We accomplish our mission through dance, music, the visual arts and by creating spaces for community learning, school–based education, and advocacy.

OUR VISION

We 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.

OUR VALUES

We value:

Our interconnectedness through art and family
Strong, artisanal businesses in our community
Collaborative, cross–cultural relationships
The healing power of cultural connection, re–connection, and reclaiming
The intersection between art and activism
The importance of revelry in a spiritual context
The power of volunteerism

2025 Theme

AfroMundo: 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: Brazil with Samba and Axé, Colombia with Cumbia and Mapalé, Trinidad & Tobago with Calypso, Cuba with Rumba and Mambo, Nicaragua with Palo de Mayo, Argentina with Tango, Mexico with Son Jarocho, Peru with Festejo, Bolivia with Caporales, Puerto Rico with Bomba and Salsa, and the United States with Jazz and Hip-Hop, among many others. These rhythms not only reflect the beauty and creativity of African culture but also carry the legacy of unity, survival, and innovation that has influenced and inspired generations across the globe.

For the African Diaspora in Americas, song holds a profound spiritual significance, acting as a bridge between the earthly and the divine. Rooted in African traditions, music became a source of solace, strength, and connection to ancestors, especially in times of hardship. Whether through the sacred rhythms of Cuba’s Yoruba-inspired chants, the call-and-response patterns of Brazil’s Candomblé, or the powerful spirituals of Afro-Peruvian festejo, these songs are deeply intertwined with faith and communal identity. They transcend the material world, invoking a sense of unity with the spirit and with one another. Through song, the African diaspora has nurtured a spiritual legacy that continues to inspire healing and hope across generations.

Dance has served as a powerful vehicle through which the diaspora has expressed its identity, resilience, and joy. We have seen throughout our Carnaval San Francisco’s 46-year legacy, the movements of capoeira, samba, rumba, punta, soca, and salsa carry the stories of survival and defiance, of celebration and mourning. These dances, forged in the crucible of resistance, are a profound symbol of liberation, reclaiming space and voice through the body. Each performance, whether in Carnaval San Francisco or on the world stage, is an affirmation of the enduring strength of African roots in the Americas—a dynamic force that continues to shape the cultural, artistic, and musical landscape of the world.

In celebrating this rich legacy, Carnaval San Francisco honors the enduring vibrancy of African heritage, which has flourished into a source of strength, unity, and pride for people of African descent in the Americas. We invite you to experience the rich and majestic world of the AfroMundo.

Grand Parade

Our Grand Parade boasts a 60–contingent lineup, with over 3,000 artists representing the cultural heritages of Brazil, Mexico, Panama, Bolivia, Cuba, Peru, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Trinidad & Tobago, Guatemala, El Salvador, and more to participate, televised by CBS. The Grand Parade covers 20 blocks in San Francisco’s historic Latino Cultural District in the Mission.

2–Day Festival

Our FREE two–day Festival covers 17 blocks in the Mission District, with five main stages, 50 local performing artists, and 400 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 46–year history of our Festival, we have welcomed luminaries like Celia Cruz, Santana, the Neville Brothers, Tito Puentes, Luis Enrique, Poncho Sanchez, Los Lonely Boys, Oscar D’León, La India, and Los Tigres del Norte. The two-day celebration is a cultural explosion with free admission for the community. With an attendance rate of over 400,000 people every year, Carnaval San Francisco is the largest multicultural celebration in California.

While the festival is free to the public, donations are highly encourated.

Cultural Arts & Health Education

STRENGTHENING THE BOND BETWEEN SCHOOLS AND THE ARTS

The Carnaval San Francisco Cultural Arts and Health Education Program was inaugurated as a pilot program at Flynn School in the Mission District in 2002. Flynn’s demographics included 68% Latinos (many being English Language Learners) and 16% African Americans.

Working with numerous teachers, CSF offered drumming and dance classes at Flynn seeking to increase student involvement in the arts and to prepare students to participate in the 2002 Carnaval Parade. As the program progressed, parents became involved in costume making, float building and volunteering for the program. Teachers reported that parents who had rarely visited their child’s school before became enthusiastic participants in the Carnaval SF education project. Since 2002, Carnaval has presented the program classes in 13 schools, serving over 9,000 students.

History

THE BIRTH OF CARNAVAL ON THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO

The Origin of the Origin
– by Willy Lizágarra

On February 25th, 1979, a windy, cold and rainy Sunday in San Francisco, about three hundred drummers and dancers, dressed in multifarious colors and shapes, paraded around Precita Park in the Mission District.

Perhaps for the uninformed passerby, it all seemed like a crazy, “hippie,” let’s-dance-half-naked-in-the-park event. For the revelers, however, it was the culmination of many months of planning and rehearsing carnival in a city that until then didn’t have one—and now can boast of hosting, if not the biggest, certainly the most diverse carnival parade in the entire country, if not the world.

Continue reading this article on foundsf.org.

Photo by Lou Dematteis