Celebrating the 2024 Chinese New Year Parade.
The San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade is this Saturday, Feb. 15, and we don't want you to miss these exciting travel discounts:
- Free Muni for parade weekend: Saturday, Feb. 15 and Sunday, Feb. 16
- Fares will be free citywide to help you get to the parade. This excludes cable cars.
- Free parking for your first two hours at the Portsmouth Square Garage
- The garage is located at 733 Kearny Street in Chinatown.
- This deal runs through Feb. 28 for new year festivities.
Learn key details about the parade and what to expect as you travel this weekend.
Parade details
- When: Saturday, Feb. 15 at 5p.m.
- Where: Starts at 2nd and Market Streets.
- The route goes around Union Square and up Kearny Street, ending at Columbus Avenue. The total distance of the route is about 1.3 miles.
- Cost: Free to watch from anywhere along the route, behind the barricades.
- To pay for special bleacher seating, you can visit the Parade Bleacher Tickets webpage.
For more information about the parade, please visit the Chinese New Year Parade FAQ page. The site includes a map of bleacher seating and details about accessibility.
Taking Muni to the parade
Best option
The easiest and fastest way to get to the parade on Muni is by taking a train east toward downtown Montgomery or Powell stations.
- Train options include the J Church, K Ingleside, L Taraval, M Ocean View or N Judah.
- Extra S Shuttle trains will also run on Market Street between West Portal and Embarcadero stations.
You can also take the T Third Street to the Union Square / Market Street Station or Chinatown-Rose Pak Station.
Visit our Muni Routes & Stops webpage or call 3-1-1 to plan your trip.
Service changes
Many Muni bus routes overlap with the parade route and will need to reroute around the parade. Look for Muni Alert signs posted on bus stop poles. These signs note where to board the rerouted bus.
Market Street
Generally, buses that run on Market Street or through Union Square will run on Mission Street instead.
Chinatown
Bus routes that run east-west and typically go through Chinatown can be found on Broadway. Routes that run north-sun through Chinatown will operate on Mason Street.
Cable cars and historic streetcars
On the parade date, cable cars and historic F Market & Wharves trains will also see impacts.
Starting in the afternoon, the Powell-Hyde and Powell-Mason lines will run cable cars north of Washington Street only.
The California Cable Car will change to bus shuttles at 1 p.m. The F Market & Wharves line will be served by bus shuttles all day.
For details on Muni reroutes, you can visit the Muni Service Changes section of our service alert for the parade.
Driving to the parade
Several streets will be closed in the Financial District for parade staging and the actual event. Some closures start at 2 p.m. and others begin at 3 p.m.
We expect to reopen streets around 9:30 p.m. after the parade is clear and crews have cleaned the streets.
For a full list of street closures, visit the Street Closures section of our service alert for the parade.
Grateful to our Board of Supervisors
The funding for free Muni and discounted parking was made possible by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. They were able to secure funding from the General Fund to cover the costs. The effort came together largely by the initiative of Supervisors Chan (District 1, the Richmond) and Sauter (District 3, Chinatown and North Beach).
We were pleased to work with them again this year to help residents and visitors explore Chinatown businesses and enjoy the parade. San Francisco’s Chinese New Year Parade is one of the largest and oldest in the U.S.
For more information as you plan your trip to the parade, visit our Chinese New Year Parade service alert.