Crowds line the streets of San Francisco during the Chinese New Year parade

The annual San Francisco Chinese New Year parade took place on Saturday night in San Francisco, starting near Second and Market Streets and continuing through the city to Columbus and ending in Chinatown. People lined the streets, despite the rainy and sometimes windy weather, to watch the more than 100 participants in the parade.

The event is billed as the largest Lunar New Year parade outside of Asia and is the main event of San Francisco’s month-long Chinese New Year festival. The San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce said it expects this year’s event to have a record attendance.

Celebrations echoed through San Francisco on Saturday as a parade tore through the city in honor of the Year of the Rabbit.

“I think it’s amazing! Like a Chinese [person] I’m really proud of my history,” said Cy George, who traveled on her birthday with her mom from Sacramento to attend the parade.

“Finally people are coming out and celebrating, it’s going to be a great year,” George said, noting that the celebration feels like a departure from muted holidays during the pandemic.

San Francisco police said they were at full strength along the parade route. In fact, department heads as well as many officers and staff also participated in the parade. Assistant Police Chief David Lazar told the NBC Bay Area on Friday that more officers have been sent to the parade this year than in recent times.

Many people watching the parade were ready for the weather in raincoats, ponchos and umbrellas.

“We’re ready, we’ve got hoods, we’re fine,” said contestant Melanie Bonner, who noted that her family would have come to the parade in any weather. Bonner was visiting from North Carolina and said she was planning her trip. dates specifically so that it can include the viewing of this parade.

The parade featured many marching bands, lion dances, ornamental dragons and rabbits, floats, and selected officials driving cars along the route. Actor Rich Ting was the festival and parade chief marshal and was also there.

Renato Alvarez, an exchange student from Ecuador living in California, attended the parade and noted that what really stands out is “the amount of diversity both in the parade and outside in the crowd, there are so many people of different backgrounds.”

The Virgen family donned a poncho along the parade route, they drove for six hours to see how a relative would perform at the parade. They agreed that the six-hour drive was worth it.