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San Francisco's Chinese New Year Festival and Parade is the largest celebration of its kind outside Asia. It ushers in the next year in the cycle of 12 with a spectacular parade, complete with lion dancers, floats and Chinese acrobats.

A comprehensive exhibition of artwork and artefacts of indigenous cultures, the Tribal, Folk & Textiles Arts Show at San Francisco's Fort Mason Center features thousands of museum-quality, pre-1940 items. Over 80 galleries and dealers from around the world are represented.

Celebrating some of the world's most beautiful flowers, the San Francisco Orchid Society's annual Pacific Orchid Exposition brings its beautiful blooms to Fort Mason Center. With 150,000 orchids on display it's a feast for both the eyes and the nose.

Celebrating the richness of indie music, Noise Pop has been going strong across San Francisco since 1993, helping to discover the delights of the likes of White Stripes and Flaming Lips. The festival promotes 50 events in its hectic week.

You know spring has sprung when San Francisco's PIER 39 unveils its annual burst of colour throughout both its levels. With 39,000 tulips in full bloom, it's not surprising that the nine-day Tulipmania Festival has become such a local favourite.

The Jewish Community Center of San Francisco hosts the annual Other Minds Festival, dedicated to pushing back the boundaries of contemporary music. The festival, directed by Charles Amirkhanian, champions innovative and experimental composers from diverse stylistic and cultural backgrounds.

Whether running or spectating, the Emerald Across the Bay 12K race is a must with its spectacular vistas from San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, looking out over the bay. The run attracts 5000 runners and thousands more spectators each spring.

Attracting around 18,000 people annually, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival is held at cinemas across the city, including Castro Theatre. It celebrates the diversity of the Asian American film industry with more than 100 features, symposia and a gala.

Nature-themed art projects and walks, conservation-based workshops, environmental guest scientists and plenty more help teach children the importance of the environment at the annual Earth Week Celebration. The day-long event is held at the Bay Area Discovery Museum.

San Francisco's International Beer Festival, at the Fort Mason Festival Pavilion, has more than 200 beers on offer. The all-inclusive ticket price is your invitation to unlimited beer and food tastings.

San Francisco has long been a haven for free-spirted artists and many marginalised groups. Spread out over nine blocks of Howard Street, the annual How Weird Street Faire celebrates the city's quirky vibe with multicultural musicans, artists, performers and cuisines.

Opening Day on the Bay is the Northern Californian sailing season's official opening day. Join spectators to watch over 150 boats, beautifully decorated and adorned, heading across San Francisco Bay in parade formation.

With screenings in a number of cinemas across the Bay Area, the San Francisco International Film Festival is an unabashed celebration of moviemaking. Its scope is as wide as the Golden Gate, after which its unique awards are named.

Over 100,000 runners can't be wrong. Every third Sunday in May, San Francisco is engulfed with runners - serious and silly. The route? From the San Francisco Bay piers over to the Pacific Ocean, hence the name: Bay to Breakers!

Join the colour and fun of Carnaval San Francisco as the city's Mission district is transformed into a Latin celebration of life every Memorial Day Weekend. It's San Francisco's largest multi-cultural event, culminating in Sunday's Grand Carnaval Parade.

San Francisco's Haight Ashbury area celebrates its cultural heritage with this annual festival. The event attracts over 100,000 people who take to the streets in an atmosphere reminiscent of the Summer of Love for which the event is famous.

San Francisco's Dine About Town takes place twice a year. Many of the city's best restaurants offer prix-fixe lunches and dinners. With around 5000 participants, you are sure to find one to suit your taste.

San Francisco's Little Italy and home of the beat generation, North Beach has hosted one of America's most popular street fairs since 1944. With animal blessings, chalk pavement art and lots of live music, this is the place to be.

Pride is the largest annual celebration on San Francisco's world-famous gay scene. The march along Market Street is a colourful explosion of gyrating bodies and noise, and one of the biggest and most flamboyant parties you'll ever partake in.

Held at different venues around San Francisco, the International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival is the world's premier showcase for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender cinema. The festival screens 80 feature films and 150 shorts from around the world.

San Francisco, home to the quintessential gay lifestyle, hosts a multitude of parties over Pride Weekend. One of the best each year is Colossus, held at the trendy 1015 Folsom night club.

The San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival features dance styles from all over the world. For over 20 years local amateurs have entertained visitors with high-class and unusual dancing in the glorious setting of the Palace of Fine Arts.

San Francisco's huge Fourth of July firework display is the culmination of a day of music and live entertainment all along the waterfront. Watch the sky from between Fort Mason and Pier 39, or a boat on the bay.

Summertime and Independence Day are celebrated along 11 blocks of San Francisco's Fillmore Street (between Jackson and Eddy) as jazz pulsates from three stages. The Fillmore Street Jazz Festival is a two-day celebration in a very special jazz neighbourhood.

Starting and finishing at Sharon Meadow in Golden Gate Park, AIDS Walk San Francisco is second in size only to New York's fund-raising event. The walk itself is 10km long and lasts two to three hours.

The annual Up Your Alley Fair is held in San Francisco's South of Market District on Dore Alley between Folsom and Howard Streets. The festival welcomes fans of leather, rubber and fetish clothing.

From classic Shakespearean drama to inspiring new works and spontaneous improv sets, San Francisco Theater Festival offers an assortment of performances to suit a range of tastes. The annual event at the Yerba Buena Gardens includes shows for children.

Unique to San Francisco, Outside Lands is named after the area now known as Golden Gate Park. The festival attracts big bands, so join the crowds at the park's Polo Field, Speedway, and Lindley Meadows for three days of music.

With its palate-tingling reputation, 300 of California's wineries come together at the Fort Mason Center to present some 1000 wines to the trade and public alike. It's the world's largest tasting of the Sunshine State's finest wine.

Willy Wonka eat your heart out! The Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival in San Francisco is a chocolate lover's dream. The highlight is undoubtedly the "Earthquake" Sundae-Eating Contest, where the winner takes home his or her weight in Ghirardelli chocolate.

Speedway Meadow in San Francisco's beautiful Golden Gate Park is the setting for the free Power to the Peaceful Festival. Over 60,000 people come to celebrate the notion of peace with a great line-up on stage as well as arts.

San Francisco's Asian American community celebrates the Autumn Moon Festival with a spectacular street fair in the city's Chinatown. Highlights include traditional Chinese costumes, arts and crafts, live performances, cooking demonstrations and of course plenty of moon cakes.

The annual San Francisco Electronic Festival is held at the Project Artaud Theater. Founded in 1999, the artist-run event provides a platform for the diverse community of composers and sound artists working with electronic-based technologies in the Bay Area.

Every year San Francisco's professional comedy community comes together to produce a five-hour, free stand-up show at Sharon Meadow on Comedy Day. Since 1981, hundreds of the world's funniest performers have entertained countless people at the event.

The Concourse Exhibition Center's Vintage Fashion Expo is held twice a year, in March and September. Around 75 dealers display clothes ranging from Victorian dress through the Roaring Twenties and the bell-bottomed Seventies to modern retro styles.

The San Francisco Fringe Festival hosts around 250 performances by 50 local, national and international theatre companies during a whirlwind 12-day period. The range of material is huge, from classic theatre to comedy.

Get your party gear on and feel the love as America's largest dance music celebration, the renamed San Francisco LovEvolution, returns. Follow the floats and pumping sound systems as the parade heads along Market Street to Civic Center Plaza.

Free Shakespeare in the Park is one of the major free Shakespeare programmes in the US. Every year one production is staged outdoors for three weekends. This leg of the annual series takes place at San Francisco's Presidio Parade Ground.

AT&T Park is home to the San Francisco Giants Major League Baseball team and stages regular games from April to September. The Giants compete in the tough National League West, which includes the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Colorado Rockies.

Leave your inhibitions at the hotel for the Folsom Street Fair. The politicians roll up for photocalls with a dominatrix; non-gays join in the leather-bondage parades and the atmosphere is friendly and inclusive at the world's biggest leather event.

Fashion is worn with compassion at the annual Macy's Passport HIV/AIDS foundations fundraiser gala at The Orpheum Theater in San Francisco. Charities benefiting from the event include the Children's Hospital Oakland.

The free annual festival Hardly Strictly Bluegrass welcomes top names in the world of bluegrass to Speedway Meadow in Golden Gate Park. The festival website releases full details of this year's line-up as soon as they are available.

Formerly known as Columbus Day, San Francisco's Italian Heritage Parade in North Beach is a tribute to the famous Italian explorer's "discovery" of the New World. The parade includes colourful floats and marching bands.

Litquake shakes up San Francisco's literary community with nine days of readings, discussions and themed events. The annual event celebrates around 350 budding and established Bay-area artists at venues across San Francisco.

The Grand National Rodeo, Horse and Stock Show is held annually at San Francisco's Cow Palace. The five-day event features a wide range of rodeo and livestock events and concerts by renowned country performers.

Out in San Francisco Bay on the sunny Treasure Island, thousands gather for the Treasure Island Music Festival. The popular two-day festival features top names from such genres as electronica, hip hop, rap, rock and indie rock.

The Grand National Rodeo, Horse and Stock Show is held annually at San Francisco's Cow Palace. The five-day event features a wide range of rodeo and livestock events and concerts by renowned country performers.

San Francisco's Fort Mason Center hosts the annual International Vintage Poster Fair, featuring American and European posters dating from the 1890s to the 1980s. From Toulouse-Lautrec posters to original circus posters, there is a huge variety of pieces on offer.

San Francisco's Castro Theatre hosts the annual Berlin and Beyond Film Festival. The unique week-long event allows Californians to enjoy new cinema from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. All films come with English subtitles.

San Francisco's Mexican community celebrates Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on All Soul's Day. People pay tribute to the spirits of their ancestors with a nocturnal procession through the Latino Mission District in fantastic costumes.