What’s Going On?

The Carnaval Grand Parade is a parade that takes place on the last day of the Carnaval Festival. This year’s theme for Carnaval was Colors of Sound / Splashes of Culture. The parade kicked off at about 9:30am, however things were a little backed up and so the parade started a little later than that. The parade started off on 24th Street and Bryant Street and continued until it hit Mission Street. The parade then turned onto Mission Street and continued all the way down until 17th Street where the parade then did a final right turn towards the festival grounds at Harrison street.

The Grand Parade was great this year with many attenders this year. The weather was amazing and a little too hot for myself, but I’m sure most of the people there that day enjoyed it. The lead float of the parade was led by King Miggy and Queen Carmen. They are the winners of the Carnaval King and Queen competition that was held prior to the Carnaval Festival. Both winners of the competition won their titles with their performance of Samba. Each competitor during the competition is given the option of singing, dancing, and/or playing a musical instrument. They are given three minutes to perform and must compete in a Carnaval costume.

The parade consisted of numerous cultures through out the Americas. The majority of the parade consisted of music and dance of the native land from which they represented; however, there were a few countries represented that walked the parade demonstrating the clothing and some of the traditions that was signature to their country. The parade seemed to last forever with probably more participants than previous years. This parade I believe was a little over three hours long. It seems much longer when you’re standing in the sun.

The parade grand marshals were Benjamin Bratt and Peter Bratt. They were followed in part with the rest of their cast in the movie “La Mission”. The actors sat in the restored vintage car portion of the parade and cruised in style while being applauded as they travelled down Mission Street. Some cars were tricked out with hydraulics enabling the cars to bounce, be raised and lowered from the back axle and also the front axle with the ability to be raised and lowered left and right as well.

The theme for Carnaval this year was truly played out to the fullest as all the units in the parade displayed vivid colors. This festival is probably ranked one of my favorite festivals to attend every year because of the vast amounts of color, happy participants, and enthused on-lookers.

Following the parade, attenders were welcomed at the festival that was located on Harrison Street where the festivities continued with food, drink, fun, and other various performances. The festival following the parade is probably the time when people who feel claustrophobic shouldn’t attend purely for the fact that thousand upon thousands of people pack the venue. As with the previous day of the festival, Sunday is just jam packed with people and sometimes trying to get around can get a little frustrating when you move throughout the 6 blocks at a snail’s pace.

Overall, I’m very pleased with the turnout of the festival and I’m sure I’ll be back again to enjoy another year of awesome fun and food. I hope to see you all there next year. Bring your family and friends because it’s going to be a great time.

Pictures of Carnaval can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. If this post was informative and helpful, please feel free to leave me a comment or donation below. Thank you.