The 10th Annual Sunset Park Puerto Rican Parade and Festival is Brooklyn’s grassroots celebration of Boricua identity, resistance, and joy — born in the neighborhood, sustained by the people who live there, and now marking a full decade of culture, music, and orgullo on the streets of one of the borough’s most historically Puerto Rican communities.
Sunset Park Puerto Rican Parade
Luis “Inca” Ramos, Aurora Flores Hostos, Elijah Matthews
5th Avenue (Brooklyn)
59th St to 44th St
Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Sun, June 14, 2026 | 5pm
FREE
Sunset Park Puerto Rican Festival
Los Pleneros de la 21, Toca All-Stars Salsa Orchestra
Bomba, plena, salsa, youth chess exhibition
Sunset Park, 5th Avenue and 43rd St entrance
Sun, June 14, 2026 | 6:30-9pm
FREE with vendor booths
10th Sunset Park Puerto Rican Parade and Festival 2026
Hosted by El Grito and partners, the parade includes marchers, rides, Puerto Rican flags, cars, and elected officials.
The march steps off at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street and makes its way up to Sunset Park, where the festival picks up at 6:30pm near the park entrance at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street.
Returning chess master Elijah Matthews is among the acts confirmed for this year’s festival.
Bomba and plena — the percussion-driven Afro Puerto Rican music forms that have defined the cultural spirit of this parade since 2015 — are central to the celebration every year.
Show up before 5pm along the route for the best spots, and make your way up to the park entrance by 6:30pm for the festival.
A Decade of Boricua Pride
The Sunset Park Puerto Rican Parade and Festival was founded in 2015, paused for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making 2026 the official 10th annual celebration.
That milestone carries real weight. The committee behind the parade honors not only the music, culture, and celebration, but the years of organizing and community accountability that made it possible — the commitment to documenting stories, protecting people, and creating safe community spaces is what birthed and sustained this annual tradition.
The parade grew out of a fight. After a long struggle to gain a permit in 2015, organizers celebrated the day as one of peace and solidarity. Parade founder Dennis Flores of El Grito described it as the people’s parade, funded on a grassroots level by neighborhood residents and local mom-and-pop shops.
It has endured because it means something. For a decade, this gathering has honored elders and ancestors while passing the torch to the next generation through culture, music, art, and community ritual — more than a parade, it is a living expression of Puerto Rican identity, resilience, and consciousness in Sunset Park.
Information
El Grito de Sunset Park is a reference to El Grito de Lares (The Cry of Lares) that launched a rebellion in 1868, the foundational act of Puerto Rican independence from Spain. Many Latin independence movements began with a famous Grito (Cry). Free Puerto Rico!
The people took over the town of Lares from the Spanish, raised the first flag of Puerto Rico (a blend of the Cuban and Dominican flags), and freed the enslaved people.
Look, nobody’s launching a rebellion. Puerto Ricans are Americans, but very proud and justifiably so. ¡Boricua Libre!