What’s Going On?

The Italian Heritage Parade is the oldest Italian cultured parade in the United States and is a very entertaining parade at that. This is my first year in attendance and it was very enjoyable. There are lots of parades that go through the streets of San Francisco, but the Italian Heritage Parade has a warm sense of family and friendliness. The parade was held on Sunday during the Columbus Day Weekend and started at Fisherman’s Wharf and continued on Columbus Ave through North Beach ending at Washington Square.

The parade is held during San Francisco’s Fleet Week and the competition is fierce to get people in attendance. Most people I’ve seen at the wharf are tourists from out of town with a good chunk of locals as well. Since the air show is located on the northern end of San Francisco’s waterfront I decided to enjoy my first experience at the parade and attend the Blue Angels following the parade.

The parade was totally filled with lots of laughter and red, white, and green all over. In attendance were high school marching bands, drill teams from high school JROTC groups, festive floats, baton twirlers, politicians, Queen Isabella and her court, other pageant contestants, a few Shiners groups, Columbus Salami, Boudin Bakery, police and fire departments, the NorCal waste management garbage can drill team, horse associations, and many more.

I looked up the history of the Italian Heritage Parade and there are some pretty cool and interesting facts about the parade and their timeline. You can read more about some interesting facts and history of the parade located here.

The Italian Heritage Parade is one that I can’t believe I’ve never attended, but I will be sure to come back for more in the future. The colorful parade and people make this one parade to mark down on your calendars. I hope that next year the weather will cooperate and it will be sunny and warm.

Pictures of the 141st Italian Heritage Parade can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. Please feel free to leave me a comment below for the pictures and/or the posting.