San Francisco Chinatown Hosts
17th Annual Autumn Moon Festival Street Fair
September 22 - 23, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO - The Chinatown Merchants Association will present the 17th Annual Celebration of the City's Autumn Moon Festival the weekend of September 22 - 23, 2007, from 11am to 6pm each day. During the Moon Festival, Chinatown's historic Grant Avenue will become a pedestrian-only bazaar with live entertainment between California and Broadway, as will Pacific Street between Stockton and Kearny. Admission is free and visitors are welcomed.

The Moon Festival, Chinatown’s best-attended annual event for several years running, marks a significant holiday on the Chinese (lunar) calendar. To mark its celebration, several stages throughout Chinatown will feature a variety of live entertainment. Among the performers this year will be a host of Asian-themed dancers and drummers, traditional and contemporary musicians including Chinese Opera, martial artists, magicians, and new for this year, a renowned Chinese acrobatic troupe. Hourly lion dance performances, sponsored by Washington Mutual, will take place on Grant and Jackson streets.

Moon Festival celebrations, though still relatively new to the U.S., have been held throughout Asia for well over 1,000 years. This holiday is a time to reflect upon the bounty of the summer harvest, the fullness of the moon, and the myth of the immortal moon Goddess, Chang O, who lives in the moon.

The Moon Festival is often compared to a sort of “Chinese Thanksgiving”
because of its spirit of gratitude and its inclusion of abundant food — including the popular moon cake. Moon cakes are flaky, round, semi-sweet pastries often filled with bean or lotus-seed paste and topped with a duck egg, echoing the shape of the full moon. Many millions of moon cakes are gifted around the time of the Moon Festival.

Our many street vendors will offer visitors the best shopping around on everything from plants to housewares, clothes to souvenirs. And, as always, our Moon Festival sponsors will join Chinatown merchants in presenting a variety of special offers, activities, arts and crafts, and food along the main festival route. The famous Dragon will close the festivities at 5pm on Sunday. Attendance at the Moon Festival is always high, so the public is encouraged to use BART or MUNI to reach Chinatown.
 

Major Sponsor: Saab, Safeway      

Co-sponsor: Tai Seng Entertainment

Media sponsors: Asian Week, KEST AM 1450, KTVU Channel 2, KTSF Channel 26, Sing Tao Daily, SF Chinese Radio, SF Examiner

Supporting Sponsor: Bank of America, Bank of the Orient, Bay Area Discovery Museum, California Transplant Donor Network, Chevron, KyLin TV, Ming Pao, New York Life, PG&E, Portsmouth Plaza Parking Corporation, World Journal

Participant Sponsors: California Lottery, California AAA, Cathay Bank, Moneygram,Nestle's USA, United Commercial Bank, Verizon Wireless, Western Union, Vayama

Also sponsored in part by: Grants from the Arts/SF Hotel Tax Fund

For more information, please call (415)982-6306 Email: info@moonfestival.org.