San Francisco Carnaval 4.75

The San Francisco Bay Area Carnaval season begins in February as the great Western hemisphere Carnaval celebrations are concluding. The four Carnaval Cities with the greatest influence and presence in the San Francisco Carnaval are the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Salvador as well as Port of Spain, Havana, Cuba, Trinidad and Oruro, Bolivia. The Mission District, San Francisco, California since the 1950s, has been a metro center for the many different Spanish speaking populations of Latin America and these groups will often enter a group or Carnaval contingent in the parade.

Carnaval or Mardi Gras is best seen as a spring festival celebrating the rebirth of life and thus it is a universal festival celebrated by all cultures as well as the first festival. Besides the strong American hemisphere presence in the parade there are generally Carnaval groups from the Philippines, India, China, Middle East and Africa.