Where to Celebrate Día de Muertos in the US in 2026: Dates, Cities and What to Expect

Start with the dates that anchor a trip. These are the large public events, listed in the order they happen.

Denver's free outdoor exhibition, Catrinas en Mi Ciudad, opens October 3 and stays up through November 4, so it suits a trip that doesn't line up with a weekend festival. Chicago's National Museum of Mexican Art also has a long run, with its exhibition *Where Memory Lives: 40 Years of Día de Muertos* open from September 25 to November 29. Dates move around a little from year to year, so treat the weekend list as a plan and the organizer's page as the final word.

San Antonio packs several events into one weekend. Muertos Fest at Hemisfair runs October 23 to 25, is free and open to the public, and includes more than 80 altars, two processions, workshops, food, vendors and live performances. Hours are 5 to 11 p.m. on Friday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 9 p.m. on Sunday. The Saturday procession starts at 7 p.m. and Sunday's at 3 p.m. Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. is set aside as sensory-friendly time. The festival began in 2013 as a small altar exhibition.

On Friday, October 23, the Day of the Dead River Parade sends illuminated barges along the San Antonio River, and tickets are sold through the official River Walk event page. Historic Market Square lists its event for October 24 and 25.

Historic La Villita also hosts a festival with live music, art, food, large alebrijes, oversized decorated skulls and Catrín and Catrina figures nearly 40 feet tall. Visit San Antonio lists it on two different pages, October 25 to 27 on one and October 23 to 25 on the other, so confirm the La Villita dates with the organizer before you plan around it.

Hollywood Forever Cemetery describes its festival as the largest Día de los Muertos event in the United States. The 27th annual event, titled "All Under One Sky" (Bajo un Mismo Cielo), is Saturday, October 24, from noon to midnight at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard. It is rain or shine, with live music, DJs, and tickets required for anyone age five and older. The cemetery's event page describes more than 100 community-created altars, five stages, an art exhibition, a procession, food vendors, a children's art area and a best-dressed calaca competition.

For something rooted in the neighborhood, Self Help Graphics & Art holds its 53rd annual celebration on Saturday, November 7, in Boyle Heights. A procession leaves Mariachi Plaza from 1:45 to 3 p.m., then a free outdoor celebration runs from 3 to 10 p.m. outside the building at 1300 1st Street. Its Noche de Ofrenda, with altars, poetry and memories of loved ones, is Sunday, November 1, from 6 to 9 p.m. Gloria Molina Grand Park hosts a free outdoor exhibition of community ofrendas from October 24 to November 2.

Olvera Street is a historic Mexican marketplace that holds an annual Día de Muertos art event. Confirm the 2026 schedule with El Pueblo de Los Angeles or the Olvera Street organizers.

In Dallas, the Bath House Cultural Center's 40th annual exhibition runs October 10 to November 7, and Crown Hill Memorial Park's 12th annual Celebración runs October 17 to November 2. The Latino Cultural Center has an exhibition from October 20 to November 6 with a festival on October 24 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Dallas Día de Muertos Parade & Festival is October 31, 4 to 10 p.m., at City Hall Plaza.

In Chicago, the National Museum of Mexican Art presents Día de los Muertos Xicágo on October 24, 3 to 8 p.m., at Harrison Park. Its Love Never Dies Ball follows on November 7.

Tucson's All Souls Procession is November 8. Participants assemble on Grande Avenue at 4 p.m. and set off at 6 p.m. The procession ends in the Mercado District with the Restoration of Care ceremony and the burning of the urn. A family-oriented Procession of Little Angels takes place the evening before, November 7, from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Literacy Connects campus on East Yavapai Road.

Albuquerque's South Valley Día de los Muertos Celebration and Marigold Parade is free and runs noon to 4 p.m. on November 1 at the Westside Community Center. Old Town Albuquerque adds the Marigold Mile, ofrendas, a Catrina procession and a candlelight procession on November 2.

In Denver, Catrinas en Mi Ciudad at the Denver Performing Arts Complex is free and open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. It includes monumental skeletons, a monumental xoloitzcuintli, masks, Catrinas, calaveras and butterflies, with work by Colorado Latino artists. The AfterLight projections run October 30 to November 2, every 30 minutes from 7 to 11 p.m.

Old Town San Diego State Historic Park offers historic altars and altar tours through October, with a community celebration from October 31 to November 2, including sugar-skull activities, workshops and a November 2 procession. In San Francisco, the Presidio Tunnel Tops hosts a free Día de los Muertos and Diwali festival on Saturday, November 7, from noon to 3 p.m. The Mission District holds an annual procession; confirm the 2026 date and route with the organizer or SFMTA.

In New York, the New York Botanical Garden shows marigolds and a community ofrenda from October 3 to November 2, with a parade on Sunday, November 1, at 2 p.m. Confirm hours and admission on the garden's official page. The Hispanic Society Museum & Library holds its event on Saturday, October 17, from 3 to 6 p.m., with a community altar, workshops and music, and The Met Cloisters lists a Día de Muertos celebration for October 11. In Washington, D.C., The Wharf hosts a free event on Sunday, November 1, from 3 to 6 p.m., with music, sugar-skull decorating, altars and a community light procession.

Museums run exhibitions too. The California Museum in Sacramento shows Sendero de las Almas Luminosas from October 10 to November 15, the Ontario Museum of History & Art in California holds its 28th annual exhibition from October 8 to November 22, and the Detroit Institute of Arts shows its ofrendas exhibition from September 26 to November 1. The Museum of Sonoma County runs its 30th annual exhibition from September 5 to November 29.

A public event in a US city usually mixes community ofrendas with music, dance, food, workshops, face painting, markets and processions. A cemetery or altar event can be quieter and more focused on remembrance. No two feel the same, which is why the organizer's description matters.

Visit San Antonio's guidance is a good template for any of them. Read the posted instructions before adding a photograph, name or object to an altar. Don't touch altar items unless organizers invite you to. Follow posted photography rules, and ask before photographing people, private memorial materials or close-ups of altars. At processions, stay behind barriers, follow the route and keep clear of ceremonial moments. At cemetery events, stay on public paths, don't sit or lean on graves and follow staff instructions. Keep children with you, and follow ticket, capacity, alcohol and accessibility rules.

Costumes depend on the event. Face painting and Catrina clothing are common at some public festivals, and Hollywood Forever's festival includes a best-dressed calaca competition. Calavera makeup is not a requirement anywhere, and it can feel wrong at a solemn vigil or a family's graveside. The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History describes Día de los Muertos as a tradition of remembrance, and treating skull imagery that way is a good guide. For the look itself, see our story on La Catrina.

The public festivals you can visit in 2026 grew out of older practices that vary a great deal by place. The Library of Congress describes how Indigenous commemorations of the dead in Mexico and parts of Central America became intertwined with the Catholic observances of All Saints' and All Souls' days from the 16th century onward. In Oaxaca, ethnographers Shawn D. Haley and Curt Fukuda documented home altars, cemetery visits, grave decoration and family gatherings on November 1 and 2 in a 2004 study, with private gatherings and public festivities each having their place.

In the United States, Smithsonian folklorist Norma Cantú credits Chicanx artists in East Los Angeles and San Francisco's Mission District with developing public, alternative forms of Día de los Muertos in the 1970s. Oakland's Fruitvale street festival began in 1996 as part of an effort to bring more customers to a local business district, according to the Library of Congress. Customs differ by region in Mexico and among Mexican families in the United States, as the National Museum of Mexican Art notes, and a UNAM article describes cemetery visits with flowers, candles and copal as part of particular family traditions rather than a universal rule. The skeleton lady you'll see at many parades, La Catrina, began as José Guadalupe Posada's satirical print, as Smithsonian Folklife notes. For the full background on the holiday, read our guide to Día de Muertos.

Once you know where you're headed, a little background makes the day richer. Our guide to Día de Muertos covers the holiday, the story of sugar skulls explains the candy skulls you'll spot on altars, and La Catrina tells you who the elegant skeleton is. If you plan to honor someone of your own, read how to make an ofrenda. Remembering the dead is the point of all of it, and our memento mori skull tee is a shirt for people who like to keep that in mind.