More than 100 vendors and organizations packed Clement Street between Eighth and 11th avenues on Saturday for the 10th annual Richmond District Autumn Moon Festival, filling four blocks of San Francisco's west side with food, performances and crowds. A petting zoo featuring a rabbit and a donkey drew families, while Shaolin Temple USA performed kung fu as part of three hours of programming that also included folk and lion dances.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the festival highlighted local small businesses and institutions, with food ranging from mooncakes and Sichuan barbecue to Cajun po boys. Vendors including Pinoy's Place, Fog City Jewelry and Richmond Postcards set up along the strip, and the paper reports that foot traffic remained steady throughout the four-hour event.
A Decade-Old West Side Tradition
The Richmond District festival isn't the original — that distinction belongs to Chinatown, where the Chinatown Merchants Association, founded by community leader May Louie, inaugurated an Autumn Moon Festival in 1991, according to SFGATE. Clement Street's version launched nearly a decade later, debuting on September 23, 2017, through a partnership between the Clement Street Merchants Association, the Community Youth Center of San Francisco, the Richmond Neighborhood Center and local elected officials, according to Richmond SF Blog. Clement Street hosted its own festival.
That west-side identity traces back further. Clement Street picked up the nickname New Chinatown as Chinese families who had settled in the Richmond after World War II built out the commercial corridor, according to FoundSF. The San Francisco Planning Department has compiled demographic data for the city, per CoastNews.
Pageant Winners Take the Stage
The festival's three hours of performances included appearances by two titleholders from the Miss Asia Global 2026 pageant. Samantha Tom, who won four categories at the pageant, spoke onstage and told the Chronicle the event strengthened her connection with her culture and heritage; she said she planned to try mooncakes and mochi snacks at the festival. Lily Tao, the overall Miss Asia Global 2026 winner who also won the pageant's talent competition for fan dancing, appeared onstage and told the paper, “It's so wonderful being here.”
Tao previously won the title of Miss Sing Tao Charisma in 2024, according to a video posted to Facebook. The pageant has a long history in San Francisco as a cultural showcase celebrating Asian American women.
Small Businesses in the Spotlight
Local artist Michael Mueller, who has lived in the neighborhood for seven years, sold his Richmond Postcards depicting prominent local businesses, including Green Apple Books and San Tung restaurant in the Sunset. “It's been great,” Mueller told the Chronicle. Green Apple Books, one of the businesses featured in his artwork, was among the local businesses he depicted.
The Clement Street Merchants Association organized this year's festival. Hoodline covered the Clementime Holiday Stroll in its 2019 holiday markets roundup. The festival highlighted local small businesses.
Timed Ahead of the Lunar Calendar
Saturday's festival landed one week before the larger, two-day Autumn Moon Festival in Chinatown, which will run 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on September 19 and 20 along Grant Avenue between California Street and Broadway, per the Chronicle's reporting. Both San Francisco celebrations arrive ahead of the actual Mid-Autumn Festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival itself is an ancient East Asian harvest celebration more than 1,000 years old, centered on the full moon and folklore involving Chang'e, per the Uwajimaya blog.
The Richmond neighborhood has also seen an apartment rent surge and, per city sales tax data cited by the Chronicle, one of San Francisco's strongest economic recoveries since the pandemic. Hoodline previously covered the Chinatown side of the Autumn Moon tradition in its 2018 Chinatown festival coverage.
