Should you prefer to avoid the crowds but still watch Saturday’s Lunar New Year Parade in Chinatown, you can still catch the biggest Chinese New Year Parade outside of Asia just by tuning in on TV or the internet livestream.

You realize downtown San Francisco will be a madhouse this weekend with the NBA All-Star Game and the Lunar New Year Parade both happening in SF this weekend. And while Muni will be free all over town on both Saturday and Sunday (and the weather report looks awesome), maybe you prefer to avoid the crowds, or maybe you have that nasty cold going around. So if you’d rather be a homebody, realize that you can still watch the Chinese New Year Parade live on TV, or on a free internet livestream.


Your local ABC affiliate KGO will be playing the parade live, starting at 6 pm on Saturday. KGO will also have a livestream going on their free Lunar New Year Parade webcast page, also starting at 6 pm sharp.

ABC News is even taking the broadcast national. That national outlet says that “The parade will also stream LIVE on ABC News Live HERE and Hulu.”

Image: Chinese New Year Parade


If you are heading to the parade, heads up that the bleacher seats are sold out, so you’ll want to get there early and scope out a spot on Market Street, in Union Square, or in Chinatown. The parade route is seen above.

In media circles, it was somewhat big news that KGO has the Chinese New Year Parade this year. In years past, it was generally KTVU (FOX 2) that had the parade broadcast.

We’re not sure if KGO is going to put the whole parade up in its entirety up on YouTube afterwards, though KTVU always did this in the past. You can still watch the 2024 Lunar New Year Parade on KTVU’s Youtube channel.

Related: The Chinese New Year ‘Year of the Snake’ Statues Are Now Up in SF [SFist]

Image: @chineseparade via Twitter