Several streets will close in and around Chinatown on Sunday for the annual Chinese New Year Festival and Parade. The parade itself will run from approximately 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., while the Festival — including the setting off of a Giant Firecracker at 3:45 p.m. — runs all afternoon.

Streets that will be blocked off to traffic are noted on the map to the right — most should only be closed from 1:30 to 3:30, but I Street from 5th Street to 6th Street NW will begin being blocked at 9 a.m., while H Street from 6th Street to 7th Street NW will be shut down until at least 5 p.m. Police are warning that motorists should just avoid the area altogether — the event does draw rather large pedestrian crowds. [Oh, and as helpfully pointed out by one of our readers, there’s a big Capitals-Penguins game scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Verizon Center — so expect very large crowds.] If you’re planning on heading down to the event, we’d highly recommend just hopping on the Metro and getting off at Gallery Place-Chinatown.

WMATA has announced that 70, 80, P6 and X2 buses will detour around the area between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Sunday.