Annual San Francisco Carnaval parade and festival return to Mission District

Samba dancers sporting headdresses of brilliant crimson, yellow and orange, traditional African drummers, giant puppets, Caribbean music - this is just a smattering of the delights in San Francisco's Carnaval Memorial Day weekend event Saturday and Sunday.

The free two-day festival covers 17 blocks on Harrison Street between 16th and 24th Streets, and is billed as the largest and longest-running multicultural celebration in California, drawing an estimated 400,000 people.

The event celebrates the diverse Latin American, Caribbean and African roots of the city's Mission District and the Bay Area overall. The are five main stages, 50 local performers and 400 vendors - including food, which can be a boon to those who dance to the performances for hours or just love to eat.

One of the highlights is the parade on Sunday, starting at 24th and Bryant streets at 9:30 a.m. Every year, a variety of participants seemingly defy gravity, gamboling down the street with six-foot-tall headdresses, hopefully using entire tubes of sunscreen given the relative coverage of their costumes.

More information can be found on the Carnaval San Francisco website .