A brilliant procession of beautifully adorned floats and stunning dancers with feathered headdresses, floral headbands and swirling skirts graced the streets of San Francisco on Sunday, May 28th 2017 to celebrate “Carnaval”, which is an annual 2day street parade and festival celebrated over memorial day weekend and is by far the largest multicultural celebration on the West Coast.
Hundreds of performers engage and entertain the crowds. Traditions from Brazil, Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia, Trinidad & Tobago, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Guatemala, Chile, Haiti, and West Africa are all featured.

“It’s a reflection of the unique diversity of San Francisco”.

The theme of this year's Carnaval was "El Corazon de San Pancho", which, when translated, means “the heart of San Francisco”. It is a tribute to San Francisco's legacy of accepting people from all cultures and walks of life. It’s all about belonging, community-building and celebrating diversity and multicultural arts.

The hours long Carnaval showcases the very best of Latin American and Caribbean cultures and there was no way I was missing it! So, this year Anindya and I were at the corner of 24th and Bryant streets by 8am, watching groups line up for several blocks in each direction fixing their costumes and practicing their routines.

SF's Carnaval also brings out the best cars in the Bay Area, specifically the best low riders! You can find so many mint condition classic cars in one place.

As the parade started the streets got crowded, children lined up in the front of the crowds and adults standing behind, eagerly waiting with their cameras on. Although there wasn’t much pushing and shoving, it was a little difficult to take good shots in the middle of a large cheering crowd. However, Anindya managed to capture the floats, costumes and some wonderful moments at the 39th Annual Carnaval San Francisco.

Check out some more amazing photos from the event below!!

Have you ever been to any carnival around the world? How was your experience?
I'd love to hear about them in the comments.

All photographs courtesy of Anindya Sen.