{"id":90066,"date":"2026-09-30T06:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T13:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/?p=90066"},"modified":"2026-09-29T14:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T21:34:07","slug":"dia-de-los-muertos-long-beach-festival-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/eat-see-do-2\/do\/dia-de-los-muertos-long-beach-festival-parade","title":{"rendered":"A year after being canceled, Long Beach\u2019s free D\u00eda de los Muertos celebration is back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Long Beach\u2019s annual D\u00eda de los Muertos festival will return to downtown this November after being canceled last year. It will not, however, feature a parade as it has previously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, the city canceled all festivities<\/a>, including the festival and parade, \u201cout of an abundance of caution\u201d after officials said they heard \u201cgenuine fears\u201d about federal immigration enforcement in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s free event will be back on a smaller scale, with a festival near Rainbow Lagoon (400 E. Shoreline Dr.) scheduled for 1 p.m. through 7 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Link<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

It will feature a mix of food vendors, along with \u201cculturally rich performances,\u201d vendors and a resource fair, according to the city. (Specific vendors haven\u2019t yet been announced.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The festival started in 2014 and grew to include a parade for the first time in 2022<\/a>, drawing tens of thousands from around the region to see colorful floats, classic cars, dancing horses and ballet folkl\u00f3rico dancers. From 2022 through 2024, a private organizer \u2014 Grand Parade D\u00eda De Los Muertos Inc. \u2014 organized the festival, and the city planned the parade that led to the festival, city spokesperson Laath Martin wrote in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the third-party company chose not to organize the festival this year, Martin wrote, so the city took over those duties instead of running the parade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Mexika Aztec dancers perform at the Long Beach D\u00eda de los Muertos Festival on Pine Avenue in Long Beach November 2, 2018. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last September, the City Council approved diverting unspent funds from last year\u2019s parade toward this year\u2019s celebration, giving it a budget of $100,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although this year\u2019s celebration will be smaller, 1st District Councilmember Mary Zendejas said she hopes people will still come out to celebrate with the same enthusiasm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that it\u2019s important to continue those traditions and be able to celebrate with family and friends, and so I wanted to give our city the opportunity to continue to do that,\u201d Zendejas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Zendaja’s personally, the marigold flowers on the ofrenda she sets up for her family remind her of the \u201cvibrantness of our ancestors\u2019 lives.\u201d Her ofrenda for her father also features a small frog that says \u201cI love you\u201d when you squeeze its stomach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She encouraged everyone to participate in the \u201ccelebration of life that honors those who have passed away,\u201d she said. \u201cThrough that celebration we keep them alive in our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can look for updates or apply to be a vendor here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The party was canceled last year because of regional immigration raids. The festival will return this November \u2014 just on a smaller scale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23521,"featured_media":90070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"The party was canceled last year because of regional immigration raids. The festival will return this November \u2014 just on a smaller scale.","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32367],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32323],"class_list":["post-90066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-do","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90066"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90076,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90066\/revisions\/90076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90066"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=90066"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=90066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}