Today is the Grand Parade for the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival in San Francisco. This will be the 41st year that the event is held. Each year, over 200,000 people attend this event showcasing the Japanese culture and the diversity of the Japanese American Community.

The parade begins at the Civic Center at 1:00p.m., proceeding up Polk to Post Street, and ending in Japantown at Post and Fillmore streets. A number of performers from Japan will also grace us with their presence. Japanese classical (Buyo) and folk dance (Minyo) groups representing the Bay Area will perform throughout the parade route like a myriad of floating butterflies.

World renowned San Francisco Taiko Dojo will keep the parade upbeat with the thundering sound of the taiko, and this year’s Queen and her Court will cascade their way to Japantown. Anchoring the parade is the exciting Taru Mikoshi, that will be hoisted by over one hundred strong individuals from throughout the Bay Area. It is a spectacle not to be missed.

See the video from last year’s parade