Downtown residents will have two ways to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Saturday, Jan. 16: The annual parade in East Village followed by a multicultural festival in the afternoon. The 30th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Parade will make its way through East Village from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Jan. 16. The parade will honor and remember King’s contributions to civil rights and social harmony. Among the festivities, the parade will feature college and high school bands, drill teams, floats and dance groups. The parade begins at 13th Street, traveling on Imperial Avenue to Park Boulevard. It will pass by Tony Gwynn Drive, Seventh Avenue, J Street and 11th Avenue before concluding on Park Boulevard. The local chapter of black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha coordinates the event. For more information, including a map of the route, visit www.alphazsl.org-/mlkdayparade.html. Later in the day, diversity can be celebrated at the Centre City Development Corporation’s family-friendly 12th annual San Diego Multicultural Festival. The free event will take place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade on Harbor Drive between Market Street and Fourth Avenue. “It started as a celebration of the diversity of San Diego,” said event producer Jacki Taylor Dwyer. “It’s all about the cultural bridging that takes place when we bring a lot of people of different ethnicities together in a festival format.” The festival features numerous booths, most of which have a cultural aspect. The booths range from information and nonprofit organizations to food and other vendors. “This year we really have a wide swatch of both jewelry and clothing from different parts of the world. It’s very exciting,” Dwyer said. Education is a central theme of the festival, and at the educational fair area, parents and students can speak with representatives from local schools. For the third straight year, the festival will have a global village exhibit, featuring students from San Diego High’s School of Communication. “It’s a collaboration with a school class – usually middle school and/or high school – and a cultural organization that really focuses on a specific country,” Dwyer said. “They have to put together something that would be significant to attendees coming by that would strike them as being in India (for example).” There is also a children’s area at the festival. It features a booth from The New Children’s Museum, drum circles, face painting, international storytellers and a variety of hands-on activities for kids. “It’s a very busy place and it’s lots of fun; it’s very family-focused,” Dwyer said. For more information on the multicultural festival, visit www.ccdc.com.