The best Día de los Muertos events to go to with a group in LA are Olvera Street downtown for a free, walkable night with altars and candlelight processions, Gloria Molina Grand Park for a longer multi-day run with live music, and the Eastside corridor from Mariachi Plaza through Boyle Heights for the most authentic, community-rooted version. Hollywood Forever works too, but only if your group buys tickets together in advance.
Here's the thing nobody tells you before you show up solo to any of these: Día de los Muertos in LA is not one event, it's a scattered set of altars, processions, and festivals across a dozen neighborhoods, happening on different days, with different rules about tickets and RSVPs. Most guides list the events and stop there. They don't answer the question that actually determines whether your night works: who are you going with, and how do you keep six people together once you're inside a cemetery packed with ten thousand strangers.
which día de los muertos event in la is right for your group
The right event depends on your group size and what you want out of the night: Olvera Street and Grand Park are the easiest for loose, large, or newly-formed groups because they're free and spread over multiple days, while Hollywood Forever rewards tight groups of four to six who buy tickets together in advance and commit to one meeting point.
Día de los Muertos itself falls on November 1 and 2 each year, but LA does not wait for those two days. Olvera Street (El Pueblo de Los Ángeles Historic Monument, Downtown LA) runs a nine-day festival with nightly candlelight processions and community altars, and it's free, per Time Out. Gloria Molina Grand Park (200 N. Grand Ave., Downtown LA) stretched from October 24 through November 2 with altars, art, and live music, per Time Out. Both are built for groups that don't want to coordinate tickets in advance. You can show up at 7pm with three people or thirteen and nobody gets turned away at a gate.
Hollywood Forever Cemetery (6000 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood) is the opposite kind of event. It's ticketed, timed, and reportedly smaller than it used to be. The 2025 celebration sold entry in windows: $5 from 1:30 to 3:30pm, $30 from 4:30 to 9pm, and $25 from 9:30pm to 1:30am on Saturday, November 1, per LA Times. A commenter on r/AskLosAngeles noted the event has felt "much more subdued" the last couple years, and that tracks with the shift toward timed entry instead of one big open gate. For a group, that's not a bad thing. It just means you need everyone on the same entry window or you'll spend half the night texting "where are you" into a dead phone signal.
the eastside corridor: how to make a day of it from boyle heights to downtown
The Eastside corridor turns Día de los Muertos into a full group day instead of a single stop: start at Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights, catch the Self Help Graphics procession, then walk or drive the short stretch into downtown to land at Grand Park by evening.
In 2025, the Self Help Graphics & Art procession began at Mariachi Plaza (Boyle Heights) and continued toward LA County Civic Center Park, since the Self Help Graphics building itself was under renovation, per LAist. That route is worth building a day around. Earlier in October, Self Help Graphics also runs free papel picado workshops every Saturday from noon to 3pm at the East Los Angeles County Library (4837 E. 3rd St.), per LA Times. That's a good anchor for a group that wants to make something with their hands before the procession even starts.
Two more Boyle Heights stops round this out. Las Fotos Project held a free event on October 25, 2025, with an RSVP requirement, a community altar, face painting, paper-marigold making, and sugar-skull decorating, plus coffee and pan dulce, per LA Times. Because it required RSVP, that's exactly the kind of stop a group needs to lock down together days ahead, not the morning of. El Sereno Community Arts ran its 17th annual free festival October 17 to 18, with community altars, handmade Catrinas, live music, and food vendors, per LAist. If your group is coming from the Westside, the Valley, or the South Bay, this corridor is the move: park once near Boyle Heights, walk the plaza and procession, then rideshare or drive the short hop to Grand Park for the evening.
No guide covers this stretch as one trip, which is strange, because it's the single easiest way to turn a scattered list of events into an actual group itinerary.
hollywood forever: what to know before you buy tickets for a group
Hollywood Forever is worth it for a group only if everyone buys into the same ticket window before the night, not after. The 2025 pricing had three tiers tied to entry time, and once a window sells out or closes, your group can end up split across the gate.
That matters because Hollywood Forever Cemetery (6000 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood) is enormous, crowded, and notorious for patchy cell service once the crowd fills in. Pick a meeting point before anyone buys a ticket, something fixed and findable, not "by the entrance," because there will be a line stretching well past any single entrance by the time the $30 window opens. Decide who's buying tickets and when, because the $5 window (1:30 to 3:30pm) and the $25 late window (9:30pm to 1:30am) are different nights entirely, per LA Times. A group of six split between the afternoon and late-night windows isn't really doing the event together.
If your group is more than six people, this is probably not your event. Smaller, tighter groups who commit to one window and one ticket purchase tend to have a much better night here than large, loosely organized ones.
free events that are actually good for groups
Free events remove the single biggest point of friction for a group: money logistics. Nobody has to Venmo anyone, nobody has to decide in advance, and a group that's still forming can just show up.
Beyond Olvera Street and Grand Park, a few more free options spread the load across the city. Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade hosts a Día de los Muertos celebration with altars, large papel-mâché installations by artist Ricardo Soltero, a Latinx market, face painting, and folklórico and Aztec dancers, per Time Out. That's the easiest option for a Westside group that doesn't want to fight traffic into downtown. The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills runs a free Family Fest with altar-making, storytelling, face painting, and traditional dance, per Time Out, which works well if your group includes kids.
For the Valley, Canoga Park's Main Street Festival on Sherman Way (between Canoga Ave. and Topanga Canyon Blvd.) marked its 25th anniversary in 2025 on November 2, per LA Times. And LA County Parks runs Día de los Muertos programming across multiple park locations countywide, with live performances and altars, per LA County Parks, which is worth a look if your group is scattered across the South Bay or further out and nobody wants to drive into the center of the city.
| event | neighborhood | cost | best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| olvera street | downtown LA | free | large or loosely formed groups |
| grand park | downtown LA | free | groups wanting a multi-day, drop-in option |
| hollywood forever | hollywood | $5 to $30 (timed entry) | tight groups of 4 to 6 who book together |
| third street promenade | santa monica | free | westside groups |
| wallis annenberg family fest | beverly hills | free | groups with kids |
| el sereno community arts festival | el sereno | free | groups wanting live music and food vendors |
| canoga park main street festival | canoga park | free | valley groups |
how to find people to go with if your friends aren't into it
If your friends don't do Día de los Muertos, or you're new to LA and don't have a group yet, the move is to find an existing plan rather than build one from scratch. That's a real, common problem, not an edge case: plenty of people want to go to something like this and simply don't know who with.
A commenter on r/AskLosAngeles put it plainly: they weren't Mexican, their friend wasn't either, and they had no idea what was going on but wanted to check out events anyway. Another reader said this would be their first time attending anything like it and they wanted a "larger gathering" with food vendors, not a quiet solo wander through a cemetery. That's the gap almost nobody addresses. Every list of events assumes you already have four friends lined up and a car. Most people don't.
This is where WashedUp actually earns its keep. Across the app, 303 plans have filled with a group of three or more people as of October 19, 2026, and 951 people are in at least one plan, having posted or joined one. Outdoors plans alone have filled 45 times, right alongside music (54) and nightlife (50), out of the 303 that have filled, which tells you people are already using this to find groups for exactly the kind of outdoor, evening, city-wide event Día de los Muertos is. Most plans that fill land on evenings, 5pm to 10pm (55% of all filled plans), which happens to be exactly when Olvera Street lights its candles and Grand Park's music starts.
Want to walk the Eastside corridor with people who've actually done it before? Find people to go with instead of trying to convince a reluctant roommate. Want to split a Hollywood Forever ticket window with three other people instead of going alone and hoping to recognize someone in the crowd? Find people to go with on WashedUp. If your group of two wants to become a group of six for Grand Park, that's also just a hiking-and-outdoor-group problem in disguise, the same logistics apply.
For readers who want to participate respectfully without a cultural connection to the holiday, the honest answer is: go to the public, free, community-facing events first. Olvera Street, Grand Park, and the Eastside festivals are built as open community gatherings, not private ceremonies. Watch before you participate, ask before you touch an altar or take a photo of someone's offering, and treat it the way you'd treat any other community's remembrance tradition: as a guest, not a tourist.
logistics every group should sort before the weekend
The three things every group needs to lock down before the weekend are tickets or RSVPs, a meeting point, and transportation, in that order, because each one gets harder to fix once you're standing in a crowd with a dead phone battery.
Start with tickets. Hollywood Forever and Las Fotos Project both required advance action in 2025, timed entry for one and RSVP for the other, per LA Times and LA Times. Put one person in charge of buying for the whole group, same window, same night. Next, pick a meeting point that's a fixed landmark, not a vague "by the entrance," since phone service at Hollywood Forever and at the denser Eastside events can drop out fast once the crowds fill in.
Transportation is the part most guides skip entirely. If your group is coming from the Westside, Third Street Promenade is the obvious low-friction choice. From the Valley, Canoga Park's festival avoids the drive into downtown altogether. From the South Bay, LA County Parks runs programming at multiple park locations, so check what's closest before assuming everyone has to trek into the Eastside corridor. If your group does want the full Eastside day, Mariachi Plaza to Boyle Heights to Grand Park is walkable or a very short rideshare, and parking once near the plaza beats trying to find street parking in three different neighborhoods.
what to expect when you get there: altars, processions, and how to be a respectful guest
Expect altars, candlelight, marigolds, face paint, and a slow, moving crowd rather than a stage show. Día de los Muertos is a community remembrance tradition, not a haunted-house version of Halloween, and the events built around it, from Olvera Street's processions to the Eastside's community altars, reflect that.
A community altar, or ofrenda, usually holds photos, candles, marigolds, and small offerings for people who've died. Processions move slowly and quietly, often by candlelight, like the one that started at Mariachi Plaza in 2025. Face painting and papel picado (the cut-paper banners) are common, hands-on, and welcoming to first-timers, which is part of why the papel picado workshops at the East Los Angeles County Library work so well as a group activity before the bigger events even start. If you're at Grand Park or Olvera Street, expect live music and food vendors woven between the quieter altar displays.
Being a respectful guest mostly comes down to paying attention. Don't touch someone else's altar offerings. Ask before photographing a person's ofrenda up close. If you're not sure whether something is open for public viewing or private, assume private until told otherwise. The whole point of these events, per the organizers behind Olvera Street's nine-day festival and Grand Park's multi-day run, is to make remembrance visible and shared, which is also, not coincidentally, part of what makes LA's social scene finally visible in a city that otherwise scatters everyone behind car windows.
Start here: pick one night, Olvera Street or Grand Park, both free and both forgiving of a group that's still coming together, and build your plan around it before worrying about Hollywood Forever tickets at all. If you don't have the group yet, find people to go with before you decide the whole thing isn't worth doing alone.
frequently asked questions
when is Día de los Muertos celebrated in Los Angeles?
Día de los Muertos itself falls on November 1 and 2, but LA's celebrations stretch far beyond those two days. Olvera Street runs a nine-day festival of nightly processions, Grand Park's 2025 programming ran October 24 through November 2, and smaller neighborhood festivals like El Sereno's ran even earlier in October. Check each event's specific dates before planning your group's night.
is Hollywood Forever Día de los Muertos free?
No. In 2025, entry was timed and ticketed: $5 for 1:30 to 3:30pm, $30 for 4:30 to 9pm, and $25 for 9:30pm to 1:30am on Saturday, November 1, per the LA Times. The event has reportedly become smaller and more intimate in recent years compared to its earlier, larger format.
what is the best Día de los Muertos event in LA?
There isn't one single best event, it depends on your group. Olvera Street and Grand Park are the easiest, free, and most forgiving for groups of any size. The Eastside corridor through Boyle Heights offers the most community-rooted experience. Hollywood Forever works well for smaller groups of four to six who commit to one ticketed entry window together.
where is Self Help Graphics Día de los Muertos held?
In 2025, the Self Help Graphics & Art procession began at Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights and continued toward LA County Civic Center Park, since the organization's building was under renovation. Earlier in October, Self Help Graphics also held free papel picado workshops at the East Los Angeles County Library on Saturdays from noon to 3pm.
are Día de los Muertos events in LA family-friendly?
Yes, most of them. The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts runs a free Family Fest in Beverly Hills with altar-making, storytelling, face painting, and traditional dance built specifically for families. Olvera Street, Grand Park, and the neighborhood festivals in El Sereno and Canoga Park all include community-facing activities like face painting that work well for groups with kids.
