2024 Hungry Ghost Festival: Downpour, Uproar!

A festival for all who carry sorrow and rage

Art Festival & Night Market

藝術節和夜市

August 17, 2024

4pm - 9pm

The Hungry Ghost Festival (also known as Zhongyuan Festival or Yulan Festival) is a special celebration for the Chinese diaspora, observed with unique interpretations worldwide in places like Hong Kong, Singapore, and beyond. Marking the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, this festival signifies a time when the boundary between the living and spiritual realms blurs. It is a day when the most hungry and angry ghosts come to the human realms to seek solace–and yes, it can be scary. Rituals surrounding the Hungry Ghost Festival would seek to distract, exonerate, or calm these restless spirits. There would be foods, performances, and other offerings to the spirit world, and in turn, it can be a healing way to combat both our seen and unseen grievances and rage.

A little-known history is that before the 1920s, Chinese rituals that sought to pacify angry spirits such as Da Jiao (打醮) and the Hungry Ghost Festival were some of the most important and deeply relevant celebrations in early Chinatowns, where over 350 of such festivals were documented throughout California Chinatowns between 1860s and 1920s. Perhaps, amid migrations, wrongful deaths, and exclusions, that was a period where Ghost Festival and Da Jiao rituals offered a sense of peace to those grappling with grief, generational traumas, and the ache of familial separation. However, after the 1906 Earthquake, with the tabooing of superstitions and non-Christian practices, many of the temples that sustained this tradition were closed or never rebuilt. Despite that, the Hungry Ghost Festival in the American context endures as a key Chinese cultural heritage that embodies notions of resistance and resilience–with many iterations reviving today that continue a legacy of reconciling with anger and sadness.

In 2023, the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco (CCC) refreshed the decade-long Chinatown  Music Festival into the 1st Annual Hungry Ghost Festival–a contemporary neighborhood interpretation of this important holiday. The Festival brought together the Chinatown community, indigenous community, Latino communities, queer communities, international communities, and over 10,000 visitors in shared dialogue with the themes and spirit of the Hungry Ghost Festival. The night-time celebration included a diverse performance line-up, large-scale public art, altars,  and a traditional “Ghost King” parade that blessed the Chinatown neighborhood and beyond. To reach Citywide communities and their ghosts, the festival involved a sense of playfulness, humor, grassroots vibes, and a whole lot of artists, partners, and cultural practitioners.

For the 2nd Annual Hungry Ghost Festival in 2024, we will embrace the theme, “Downpour, Uproar!”, chasing the emotions and catharsis of rage and sorrow.  The festival will be a rousing celebration with unique performances, a lively procession, and a bustling marketplace. Honoring our ancestors and wandering spirits into the night, we hope that the darker it gets, the bolder or more empowered we feel.

PARTNERS 合作夥伴

Hungry Ghost Festival Partners 2024

This event would not be possible without our network of community organizations, cultural partners, and artists.

Lead Cultural Bearer

Lotus Tao Culture AssociationCultural & Artistic Partners

Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Asian Women's Shelter

Baht Wor Charity Foundation

Community Youth Center

Calle 24 Latino Cultural District

Chinese Progressive Association

Chinatown YMCA

Kearny Street Workshop

San Francisco Public Library

Southeast Asian Community Center 

San Francisco Opera

Marigold Project

Merchant Engagement Partners

BeChinatown 

Chinatown Merchant Association 

Chinatown Shopping Challenge

AA Bakery & Cafe (1068 Stockton Ave)

Aroma J Tea Shop (845 Washington St)

Beijing Bazaar (826 Grant Ave)

By Me Boba (22 Ross Alley)

Cool Tea Bar (103 Waverly Pl)

Ellie & Eva (709 Jackson St)

Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Co. (56 Ross Alley)

Joy Hing B. B. Q. Noodle (710 Kearny St)

JR Gift Shop (932 Grant Ave)

Kim+Ono (729 Grant Ave)

LanLan Market (812 Washington St)

Metro Hong Kong Dessert and Milk Tea (928 Stockton St)

Mi Ze Lan Fashion (777 Jackson St)

New Asia Gift Center (509 Grant Ave)

P&C Gift Shop (614 Grant Ave)

San Sun Restaurant (848 Washington St)

The Wok Shop (718 Grant Ave)

Yummy Bakery and Cafe (607 Jackson St)

Zhu’s Tea (112 Waverly Pl)

Poster Art & Design

Leland Wong 

AR interactive Design

Xinling Wang

2024 Hungry Ghost Festival would not be possible without the support of our sponsors:

Presented by:

Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco

Supported by: 

California Natural Resources Agency 

California Department of Social Services – Stop the Hate Program

Office of Economic and Workforce Development 

Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office

Additional support 

Grants for the Arts

Walter and Elise Haas Fund

San Francisco Foundation

CCC Contemporaries

Visa Asians Standing Together (VAST) 

Portsmouth Plaza Parking Corporation

Golden State Warriors

Minami Tamaki LLP

North East Medical Services

Recology