The 33rd annual Pistahan Parade and Festival — the West Coast's largest Filipino celebration — runs Saturday and Sunday at Yerba Buena Gardens. Free, no ticket, and if you missed Saturday's parade, Sunday is the easy day to go.

The 33rd annual Pistahan Parade and Festival is on right now: Saturday, August 8 and Sunday, August 9, on the Great Lawn at Yerba Buena Gardens, Mission Street between 3rd and 4th. Festival hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, admission is free, and there's no ticket to buy — you just show up.

If you're reading this Saturday, the parade has already stepped off — it left Civic Center Plaza at 11 a.m. and marched down Market to the gardens, billed by organizers as the largest Filipino parade on the West Coast. But the parade is only the kickoff. The festival itself runs both afternoons: eight pavilions covering art, dance, culinary, heritage and more, plus a pop-up food court pulling dishes from the region's top Filipino restaurants and a Sari-Sari marketplace of imported goods. Put by the Filipino American Arts Exposition, it bills itself, fairly, as the next best thing to a trip to Manila.

Here's the practical read: Sunday is the better day if you want room to move. Saturday draws the parade crowd; Sunday, 11 to 5, is the same food and stages without the crush.

Take transit. Powell Street Station (BART and Muni Metro) is about a two-block walk. Skip driving — Saturday's parade brought street closures on Market (Hyde to 4th) and 4th (Market to Howard) from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., and SoMa parking is expensive on a good day.

Two hours to spare? Go straight to the food court and the Tavern pavilion, eat, then catch whatever's on the main stage — dance, hip-hop, jazz, martial arts rotate through. Questions: (415) 543-1718 or pistahan.net.