San Francisco Pow Wow in Civic Center

In Civic Center on Wednesday there was a ferris wheel in front of City Hall...



...and a huge tent in the plaza surrounded by lighting and smaller tents fronting Polk Street.



Other than the San Francisco Symphony's Black and White Ball, the neighborhood has rarely seen such an ambitious and sumptuous setup for a party.



The Wednesday evening event turned out to be the final party for the International Pow Wow, the U.S. Travel Association's largest annual tradeshow which had been meeting earlier in the week at Moscone Center. The Pow Wow, which focuses on international travel groups coming to the United States, hasn't convened in San Francisco since 1994, so you can probably expect to see an uptick in large foreign tour groups making their way through the city in the next couple of years.