Muertos Fest will return to Hemisfair in downtown San Antonio from October 23-25, bringing three days of remembrance, music, art, food and cultural programming to one of the largest Día de los Muertos celebrations in the United States.
The free festival, which draws more than 100,000 people annually, will once again centre its programming around the traditions of remembering those who have died, honouring their lives and celebrating the ways their memories remain part of families and communities.
That idea is reflected in the festival’s theme: “Remember. Honor. Celebrate.”
Founded in 2013, Muertos Fest has grown into a major annual gathering in San Antonio, with more than 80 community-created altars forming the heart of the event. Families, schools, artists and community organizations build the altars in memory of loved ones who have passed, turning the festival grounds into a large-scale collective act of remembrance.
The altars are joined by two signature Día de los Muertos processions, with each entry dedicated to the memory of someone who has died.
Rather than functioning simply as parades, the processions are structured as moving tributes, combining music, dance, visual art and celebration with personal remembrance. They have become some of the most anticipated moments of the festival weekend.
The 2026 edition begins Friday, October 23 with ‘¡Presente! A Night to Remember,’ an opening evening built around the festival’s outdoor altar exhibition.
The first two hours of the evening, from 5 to 7 p.m., will be reserved for sensory-friendly altar viewing, providing a quieter opportunity to experience the installations.
Programming later that night will include a Goodwill San Antonio fashion show featuring Día de los Muertos-inspired looks, along with musical performances on the main stage.
The full festival follows on Saturday, October 24 and Sunday, October 25, when Hemisfair expands into a large cultural celebration spread across more than 80 altars and five stages of live music and performances.
The weekend will also include both processions, workshops, food and more than 75 art vendors participating in the Muertos Mercado.
The festival is also inviting the public to become part of the event rather than simply attend it. Applications are open for individuals, families, schools, artists and community organizations interested in creating one of the community altars or participating in one of the processions.
That community participation has remained central to Muertos Fest as the event has grown. The altars are not simply decorative installations created by festival organizers; they are assembled by people throughout San Antonio and beyond, allowing individual stories and memories to become part of the larger celebration.
For 2026, Letras en la Frontera will serve as the festival’s nonprofit partner.
The San Antonio-based literary organization regularly works with UNAM San Antonio, the local presence of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, on cultural programming. Together, the organizations will bring back the Day of the Dead Bookstore, which made its Muertos Fest debut in 2025.
The bookstore adds a literary component to an event already spanning visual art, performance, fashion, music and food, further broadening the ways the festival engages with Día de los Muertos traditions and contemporary Mexican and Mexican-American culture.
Muertos Fest’s scale has grown considerably since its launch in 2013, but its central purpose has remained rooted in remembrance.
The annual gathering uses public art and live performance to create space for grief and celebration at the same time. Altars preserve personal histories, processions move those memories through the festival grounds and the music and performances surrounding them turn remembrance into a communal experience.
That balance between mourning and celebration is fundamental to Día de los Muertos itself, and Muertos Fest has built its programming around keeping both elements visible.
The event also places those traditions in the middle of downtown San Antonio, where Hemisfair becomes a gathering place for families, artists, schools and cultural organizations throughout the weekend.
While the festival now attracts more than 100,000 attendees, its community altars continue to give the event an intimate dimension. Each altar is dedicated to particular people and stories, meaning the larger festival is ultimately built from dozens of individual acts of memory.
The same applies to the processions, where every participating entry honours someone who has died.
By combining those personal tributes with live music, dance, fashion, food, visual art and literary programming, Muertos Fest has developed into a broad celebration of the cultural traditions surrounding Día de los Muertos without losing the remembrance at their centre.
Muertos Fest takes place October 23-25 at Hemisfair in downtown San Antonio and remains free to attend.