Singing along with Dominican music and playing traditional instruments, tens of thousands of spectators lined Sixth Avenue yesterday for the 25th annual Dominican parade.

“Today is a celebration of the restoration of the Dominican Republic,” a parade organizer, Carlos Velasquez, said. The day commemorates the anniversary of the beginning of the war for Dominican independence from Spain in 1863.

The parade’s grand marshal was the Dominican-born businessman and philanthropist Rafael Alvarez, and Mayor Bloomberg also marched.

Mr. Velasquez said more children and second-generation Dominicans were in attendance yesterday than in past years. “The crowd is getting younger and younger as they’re learning the language and becoming a part of the city,” he said.

Music is a significant part of the culture, he added, and singers and dancers ranging from traditional groups to current pop stars were on floats along the nearly two-mile route.

Performers such as Dominican native Richard Garcia, 37, danced in brightly colored costumes with bells, feathers, sequins, and elaborate masks. The costumes, called ‘lechones,’ represent the monsters that appear before Lent and are traditionally worn in Dominican celebrations, Mr. Garcia said.

One parade attendee, Juana Jaquez, 29, brought her 8-year-old daughter to her first parade for a dose of Dominican culture, she said.

“I came to have fun and to see the beautiful pieces of the country here in New York,” Ms. Jaquez, who was born in the Dominican Republic and now lives in New Brunswick, N.J., said in Spanish through a translator.

Half of the country’s Dominican population lives in New York, with more than 500,000 residents, according to the Census Bureau’s latest study, in 2005.

Police said one person was hit in the head with a bottle at the parade. Records of arrests were not available by press time.