Anyone walking or driving by Folsom, Howard, Beale or Main streets in San Francisco on Sunday’s windy afternoon could hear Bollywood party music blasting along the block while clouds of colored powders flew through the air.
The Crossing at East Cut, the former Temporary Transbay Transit Terminal and now a community destination, hosted its first Holi festival in partnership with TogetherSF and Ideate SF on Sunday. TogetherSF hosted a dumpling-making event for Chinese New Year in February.
Jolly Shah takes part in the Holi festival celebration at The Crossing at East Cut in San Francisco on Sunday. Shah, a resident of Mumbai, India, is in San Francisco visiting her two sons. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
Anushya Mani of BollyX performs during Sunday’s Holi festival celebration at The Crossing at East Cut. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
A San Francisco resident celebrates Holi at The Crossing at East Cut on Sunday. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
Festivalgoers cheer for Harpal Saini as he prepares to play the dhol, a double-sided barrel drum, during the Holi celebration at The Crossing at East Cut in San Francisco on Sunday. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
Festivalgoers throw colorful powder at each other during the Holi festival celebration in San Francisco on Sunday. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
Festivalgoers dance to the beats of the dhol during the Holi festival celebration at The Crossing at East Cut on Sunday. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
Luna Crawford, 1, attends the Holi festival celebration in San Francisco on Sunday. Crawford’s family lives in an apartment across from The Crossing at East Cut and, upon hearing the music, brought her to the festival. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
Nikhil Patel, at left, and Laksheeta Johari dance to Bollywood music during the Holi festival celebration. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
Attendees at Sunday’s Holi festival celebration dance to the music at The Crossing at East Cut. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
Linden Cady of BollyX cheers for the crowd to dance along with her during Sunday’s Holi festival celebration. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
A crowd of festivalgoers dances to Bollywood music during the Holi festival celebration. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
Sanah Budhwani performs the signature dance move of “Desi Girl,” a popular Bollywood song by Priyanka Chopra, during the Holi festival celebration. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
A crowd of festivalgoers dances during Sunday’s Holi festival celebration at The Crossing at East Cut in San Francisco. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
Jason Sharma takes a photo with his son Tej, 2, during Sunday’s Holi festival celebration. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
Festivalgoers dance in sync to the beats of the dhol during the Holi festival celebration in San Francisco. Garba is a Gujarati folk dance celebrating fertility and femininity. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney, at left, and the organizers of the Holi festival celebration hold up colored-powder poppers at The Crossing at East Cut on Sunday. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
Supervisor Matt Haney and the Holi festival organizers prepare to release colorful powder into the crowd at The Crossing at East Cut on Sunday. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
Volunteers hand out cups with Holi powder during Sunday’s celebration at The Crossing at East Cut in San Francisco. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
The Holi festival celebration takes place behind the glass with a sign that says “No powder throwing beyond this point” at The Crossing at East Cut in San Francisco on Sunday. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News) 
A crowd dances to the bears of a dhol, a double-sided barrel drum, during the Holi festival celebration at The Crossing at East Cut in San Francisco on Sunday. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News)
“There was such a good response to the [dumpling] event that I was like, we should do more cultural events, and we’ve Holi coming up, and I’ve never seen a Holi event in San Francisco,” said Kanishka Karunaratne Cheng, the executive director and cofounder of TogetherSF. “And I know there is a South Asian community here, and there are a lot of South Asians in the East Cut neighborhood.”
Holi is the Hindu festival of colors marking the arrival of spring and celebrating the triumph of good over evil. While the calendar date for the festival changes every year, Holi fell on March 18 this year, when many South Asians across the Bay Area celebrated the festival after missing the celebrations two years in a row amidst the pandemic.
Sharing how quickly the event came together with the help of sponsorships, Karunaratne Cheng added, “I think there is a cultural need for these kinds of events, especially after the pandemic, right?”
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The event was District 6 supervisor Matt Haney’s first time celebrating the festival.
“It’s great to see people just together enjoying themselves, releasing a lot of the stress of the last few years and welcoming a brighter future for our city,” Haney said. “You know it symbolizes the coming of spring but also the triumph of good, and that’s a message that we need, you know, after a very tough couple of years.”