The largest Lunar New Year festival and parade outside of China is coming back to San Francisco next year, following a brief hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday announced the San Francisco Chinese New Year Festival and Parade will return on Feb. 19, 2022. It's still a few months away, but people are already looking forward to its return.
"It's great," Anita Chan, owner of two jewelry stores in Chinatown, told KCBS Radio on Wednesday. "It's great. It's good for the local businesses, and also it's for the culture. People know about the Chinese culture. That will be great."
Although Chan is excited for the Lunar New Year, she told KCBS Radio she hopes people return to the area before then.
The pandemic scuttled plans for the parade this year, which lifelong San Franciscan Mauricio Salazar definitely noticed. Salazar was shopping in Chinatown on Wednesday, and he said he's looking forward to the comeback.
"Oh yeah, it's gonna be turnt up, man," he said. "It's gonna be lit. We missed it (last year). I'm happy to hear it's coming back."
Participants and volunteers will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and wear masks, but festival organizers said they're happy to bring the parade and festival roaring back in honor of the Year of the Tiger, which begins on Feb. 1. The chamber said it has organized the festival since 1958, and parades have honored the holiday in some form since the 1860s.
Spectators will be able to buy bleacher tickets on Eventbrite by mid-November.
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