It’s that time of year again for moon cake! On Saturday, September 6, 2014, MVNCI was invited by the Miss Asian Global (MAG) organization to attend the 24th Annual AT&T Autumn Moon Festival in Chinatown San Francisco. The festival transforms Grant Avenue into a street filled with lively entertainments such as arts & crafts, cultural exhibits, authentic food, and children’s activities. It was originally held in 1991 to bring in more business to shops in Chinatown, and has since been held every year thereafter.
To start off the festivities, a parade was held which included a line of civic officials, beauty queens and princesses, cultural performers, and lion dancers, all led by San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. It was our first time participating in a parade for a community-wide event! We were given paper lanterns to hold as we walked down Grant Avenue smiling and waving at onlookers. The parade ended on the erected main stage where the festival was formally introduced to the crowd of people and several key people gave short speeches. During this time, giant confetti cannons were passed around for those standing on the stage to set off during the ribbon cutting, which officially kick-started the festival! All of the beauty queens and princesses had the opportunity to introduce ourselves and wish everyone a happy moon festival.
Afterwards, the pageant royalties were led on another short parade of our own. We happily stopped to take pictures here and there upon request. After we were treated to a lovely lunch with the MAG court, we made our way back to the stage where we introduced ourselves again to the afternoon crowd. It was thrilling to know that we were apparently spotted on the local evening news later that night! We would like to extend our gratitude to MAG for the invitation and for taking care of us so well throughout our time there!!
Photos c/o Jessica Do