SAN FRANCISCO — Longtime Seahawks fan Natasha Yankoffski wasn’t planning on being in San Francisco’s Chinatown on Wednesday night, right in the middle of Super Bowl LX festivities. But as luck would have it, there she was: hanging out at the Chinatown Lunar New Year Big Game Block Party on Grant Avenue, taking in the scene as thousands of people milled about. Countless food vendors served customers as twilight descended over the city, highlighting the red lanterns strung across buildings on the street.
“I flew down not to go to the Super Bowl but because I volunteer with the Marine Mammal Center (in Sausalito),” Yankoffski said. “It was just perfect timing. So I wore all my Seahawks gear.”
The Gig Harbor resident plans to fly back to Washington on Sunday — the day of the Super Bowl between the Seahawks and the New England Patriots in nearby Santa Clara, Calif. — so she can make it to a watch party with friends.
“I was looking for anything Super Bowl-related that I could do that I wouldn’t have to pay a fortune,” Yankoffski said of the block party. “And I thought this could be fun.”
Around the world, particularly in Asia and across the Asian diaspora, people will begin celebrating Lunar New Year this month, which kicks off the Year of the Horse on Feb. 17, 2026.
The leader of BeChinatown, which organized the event, said it was also a stroke of good fortune, apropos for a Lunar New Year celebration, that so many people gathered for Wednesday’s free night market.
BeChinatown’s Lily Lo said her team, which runs monthly night markets in the Bay Area, had only a few weeks to organize a special market in the run-up to the Super Bowl.
“It just happened to work out with (the city) because their schedule said they have time on Wednesday,” Lo said.
These night markets are designed in part to boost sales for family-run businesses in local Chinatowns. Many of these business owners in the Bay Area immigrated to the United States from China, like Lo did many years ago.
“I’ve been (in San Francisco) for 40 or 50 years,” Lo said. “I really want the younger people to come to Chinatown.”
On Wednesday night in San Francisco, Lo’s wish came true, as Lunar New Year revelers and other locals mixed with wandering football fans.
From a large stage in the middle of the street, red and yellow lion dancers jumped and pranced before a crowd of buzzing spectators. Though the music was nearly deafening, cymbal player Serena Nguyen stood unfazed as her dance troupe completed their routine.
“It’s awesome that we have such a big audience, especially since it’s Super Bowl weekend,” said Nguyen, a senior from Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco. “They not only get to experience the Super Bowl here, but we’re also sharing our Chinese culture.”