Carnaval Season with Sambaxé
Join us in the 2026 San Francisco Carnaval Parade on Sunday, May 24th!
At the start of each year, we begin preparing to impress the crowds & judges in the Carnaval San Francisco Grand Parade. At the largest multicultural festival on the West Coast, the parade is a celebration of Latino, Caribbean and African Diasporic traditions of the Mission District and the San Francisco Bay Area.
All levels, ages, gender identities, and backgrounds welcome.
Join us for dance rehearsals in preparation for the parade!
Saturdays Feb 7 - May 16
11:30am - 1pm
741 South Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA
$25 per class. Drop ins welcome. Parade registration & costume costs separate.
Baianas, Spirit Section, and Kid Dancer and Drummer registrations will open in Spring 2026. Stay tuned!
How to participate
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Dancers (Adults)
Estimated total cost: $545+
$100+ registration
$245+ costume
$200+ dance rehearsals
Work trade scholarships available. -
Dancers (Teens)
Estimated total cost: FREE
For dancers 14-18, registration, rehearsals, and costume are FREE thanks to our 2026 Carnaval Partnership with Youth Art Exchange! -
Baianas Section (Adults)
Estimated total cost: $350+
$50 registration
$300+ costume
FREE dance rehearsals
Work trade scholarships available. -
Kid Dancers + Drummers
Estimated total cost: $60+
FREE registration
$60 costume
$10 per family per Friday drum rehearsal
Scholarships available. -
Spirit Section (All ages)
Estimated total cost: $20-$35
Each Spirit Section member must have a 2026 Sambaxe t-shirt (abadá). Even babies :)
Work trade scholarships available on a case-by-case basis. Please contact Raffa (sambaraffa@gmail.com) or Kirsten (sambaxe.kirsten@gmail.com) for details.
Baianas, Spirit Section, and Kid Dancer registrations will open in Spring 2026. Stay tuned!
What to expect
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Learn the movements and meanings
Samba music and dance carries deep meaning and cultural significance. We welcome dancers of all levels. We’re here to have fun sharing the tradition of samba!
Main Section Dancers:
● Weekly Samba no pé rehearsals from February through May to learn choreography for 2+ songs
● We want you feel prepared and to look cohesive as a group. Please plan to attend at least 10 rehearsals, including the final 3 weeks leading up to the parade!Baianas Section Dancers:
●The "ala das baianas" are traditionally ladies who represent the first groups of Bahia samba of the early 20th century. They provide samba schools a spiritual blessing.
● Dancers will learn simple choreography of traditional, spiritual, and graceful freestyle moves.Kid Dancers + Drummers:
● Kid Dancers will learn a modified version of the Main Section choreography.
● Kid Drummers will learn and play the beats to the parade songs.Spirit Section:
● All ages welcome! Just practice your smiles for the crowd and join us on the day of the parade! -
Dress to impress
Creative Director, Raffaella Falchi-Macias, designs new costumes for each year’s theme. She builds on inspiration from her visits to Brazil and we get certain pieces made there!
Costumes for the Main Section include a bodysuit or similar, headpiece, accent pieces, and optional components like feathered wings. We host costuming workshops where dancers construct elements of their own costumes and bond as a community. Save time for this labor of love!
Costumes for the Baianas Section will embody the roots of Bahian tradition through dance and clothing, like large skirts accompanied by a headscarf.
Costumes for Kid Dancers and Drummers will follow the theme for the year and will be announced in the spring.
Spirit Section members will wear a new 2026-themed shirt!
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Fundraising in our community
Each year we work as a group to raise funds to keep our costumes and participation in the parade as affordable as possible.
We ask that each dancer help with at least one fundraising event each season. Your involvement in fundraising helps us keep the joy of Carnaval possible for everyone in our community, regardless of financial means.
Raffa offers work trade scholarships on a case-by-case basis. Please contact Raffa (sambaraffa@gmail.com) or Kirsten (sambaxe.kirsten@gmail.com) for details. -
Showtime and celebrations
We’ll provide all the details to get you ready for the parade, including where the judges sit so you can shine even brighter as we dance by.
After the exhilaration of the parade, we gather for a celebration lunch in the Mission.
The day after the parade, Monday of Memorial Weekend, we have a celebration potluck to reminisce, share photos, and appreciate all our hard work. Save the date to join us in this tradition!
Sambaxé’s 2026 Carnaval Theme
Stay tuned or come to our rehearsals to be the first to find out!
About Afro-Brazilian Religion/Beliefs
Orixas (deities) are worshiped in the Afro-Brazilian religions Candomblé, Umbanda, and in several other offshoot religions. According to Yoruba peoples (concentrated in the southwestern part of Africa), after the world was created, each orixá received a divine energy called Axé, giving the orixás the ability to govern certain aspects of the material world. Each orixá also represents different aspects of nature, both inside and outside the religious context. For example: Oxalá corresponds to the air we breathe and Oya/Iansã to the winds. Iemanjá is found in the oceans and seas; Oxum can be found in rivers and waterfalls.
The concept of Axé is an affirmation of faith in the divine power of the universe as a place where human beings can derive strength and energy from the celestial world of the orixás. In the Candomblé philosophy, axé is also defined as the power to make things happen! It is the power to invoke, to create light, or a pathway of positive energy.
A History of Carnaval
Carnival originates from ancient European Festivals in the 1500s. In Catholic tradition, it happens every year the week before Lent (6 weeks before Easter).
Carnival therefore represented a last period of feasting and celebration before the fasting period/spiritual rigors of Lent. Traditionally, a Carnival feast was the last opportunity for common people to eat well, as there was typically a food shortage at the end of the winter as stores ran out. Until spring produce was available, people were limited to the minimum necessary meals during this period.
During Lent, no parties or celebrations were held, and people refrained from eating rich foods, such as meat, dairy, fat, and sugar. Carnival can thus be regarded as a rite of passage from darkness to light, from winter to summer: a fertility celebration, the first spring festival of the new year.
*The word "Carnival" is thought to come from the Latin phrase carne levare, which translates to "to remove meat". This is a reference to the practice of abstaining from meat during Lent, a period of repentance and abstinence in which many Christians do not eat meat.
Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro
The first Rio Carnival festival was held in 1840. Today there are about 70 samba schools. They bring together people who belong to the same neighborhood. Every year, these festivities bring hundreds of thousands of people to the parade and attract millions of tourists. The date of this event is set in relation to the date of Easter.
The carnival brings together a dozen samba schools which parade one after the other according to a precise calendar and theme. For several days, starting at night, music and dance overflow the streets of Rio de Janeiro. The carnival highlights Brazilian culture the parade is also a competition, where a school is crowned the winner.
Carnaval in San Francisco
Originating in the Mission District in 1979 with a few local Latino performance troupes parading and reveling in Precita Park, Carnival has blossomed to a weekend celebration that closes off Harrison and Mission Street from 16th to 24th Streets and includes nearly 100 contingents representing the four major ethnic groups of the Americas and was attended by approximately 75,000 spectators.
Because Carnival is celebrated during Memorial Day weekend, it signals the beginning of summer.
Although the scale and commercial pressures have expanded greatly, both the parade and festival still remain the rightful domain of the Mission District. The Grand Parade features the diverse Latin American, Caribbean and African Diasporic roots of the Mission District and the San Francisco Bay Area, and is televised. The festival covers 17 blocks in the Mission District, with five main stages, 50 local performing artists, 400 vendors, international food, dancing, sampling sites and entertainment for all.
