Brightly colored fabric dragons danced through the streets of downtown San Francisco and Chinatown on Saturday night before a backdrop of fiery sparklers, hundreds of thousands of bright-eyed onlookers and the loud pops and bangs of firecrackers.

More than 20 floats, 2,500 marchers and countless costumed performers honored the Chinese lunar Year of the Monkey with San Francisco’s annual Chinese New Year Parade.

The famous festivity is a long-standing city tradition that dates to the 1860s. The event has been named one of the top 10 parades in the world and is known as one of the biggest celebrating the Lunar New Year outside of Asia.

And it certainly drew the crowds.

This year’s parade had people claiming spots hours before the event and filled the sidewalks up to 20 or more people deep near Union Square.

Linda Tam of San Francisco found her spot long before the parade began. She joined a group of 30 to 40 families that took over most of the block on Post Street between Grant Avenue and Kearny Street.

The group set up a table full of coffee and snacks and spent the day tailgating — minus the car.

“We’ve been set up since about 2:30 p.m.,” Tam said as the first float of the parade passed by. “My son and many other of the families’ children are in the parade.”

It’s a yearly tradition that brings her and the other families together, and it’s one she said is well worth the wait.

“It’s definitely a San Francisco thing that everyone comes out to,” she said. “It’s something more than just football.”

And the appeal of the slow-marching drummers, chanting children and politician-bearing cars seems to be universal.

Ed Lew, a parade volunteer and board member at the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said about 750,000 people from all over were expected to squeeze onto city streets to watch the parade.

Toni Hines, a San Francisco resident, gathered with families on Post Street. She said her children have been in the parade in the past and that she loves the annual tradition.

“It has brought a lot of diversity and really enhanced the community,” she said.

The parade started at Market and Second streets at 5:15 p.m. and snaked its way around Union Square before ending up at Kearny and Jackson streets in Chinatown.

The parade included marching bands, plenty of local politicians, including Mayor Ed Lee, and Stephanie Wong, Miss Chinatown USA 2016. As always, the parade’s final highlight was the traditional 270-foot-long golden dragon carried by nearly 100 martial artists.

This new year — the Year of the Monkey — marks the ninth of the 12-year Chinese lunar calendar cycle and the year 4714. Parade officials said the Year of the Monkey is known as one of invention and improvisation, with the monkey spirit encouraging gambling, speculation and exploitation of risky but ingenious options.

Chinese New Year is a time of a reunion and thanksgiving in the Chinese culture, with festivities beginning with the new moon on the first day of the new year — Feb. 8 for this year — and ending on the full moon after 15 days.

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