Oxnard's 2026 Día de los Muertos festivals begin on Saturday, October 17, with a $25 festival at Heritage Square and end on Sunday, November 1, with a free afternoon on a farm off North Rose Avenue. Two more free celebrations fall between those dates. Framing all of it is a free community altar at The Collection at RiverPark, which opened October 2 and stays up through November 2.
The first festival is produced by a downtown storefront, in a downtown that the state certified as a California Cultural District in its 2025–26 cohort. The festivals after it move to other parts of the city, and all of them are free.
A shop near the square sets the start date
Panteón Fest is the work of Pipiripau, a Mexican-culture apparel and art business. Brothers Rolando and Heriberto Rubalcava started it in 2011. By the company's own account, it opened a Downtown Oxnard shop in 2021 and began producing live events in 2022. In 2026 the festival reaches its fourth year. As Amigos805 reported, Pipiripau was named 2024 Entrepreneur of the Year by the West Ventura County Business Alliance.
This year's festival honors Chespirito, the Mexican comedian who created El Chavo del Ocho and El Chapulín Colorado. The program lists live music, traditional and Aztec dance, a special theatrical performance, community altars, a nighttime procession, a Catrín & Catrina Contest and an art exhibition. "Panteón Fest is about bringing our community together to celebrate our culture, remember where we come from, and create something meaningful for the next generation," the Rubalcava brothers said in the Amigos805 announcement.
The practical details:
- When: Saturday, October 17, 1 to 9 p.m.
- Where: Heritage Square, 715 S. A St.
- Cost: $25 general admission as of October 1, after a $15 presale tier that ended September 30, and free admission for children 12 and under. Food, drinks and merchandise are extra.
- Organizers: Pipiripau, with Pueblo & Co listed as an associated organizer.
Tickets are on the Panteón Fest Eventbrite page. The festival runs into the evening, and the procession is billed as a nighttime event. Anyone who wants both the afternoon performances and the procession should plan for most of the day.
Why downtown carries more weight this year
The fourth Panteón Fest is the first held since Downtown Oxnard joined the state's cultural district program. The California Cultural Districts announcement lists the designation term as January 1, 2026, through December 31, 2030. It comes with $10,000 over two years, state certification, technical assistance and joint-marketing resources.
According to the VC Reporter's coverage of the designation, the application was a joint effort by the City of Oxnard, the Oxnard Performing Arts Center (OPAC) and the Downtown Oxnard Improvement Association. The paper described OPAC executive director Carolyn Mullin as instrumental. The same piece listed the next steps: a district logo, website, social media, a brochure, signage and a launch party. Mullin said the group was also looking for funds to hire a part-time worker. The City, the Improvement Association and OPAC held a kickoff on April 1 at the Oxnard Transit Center, with pop-up art, coffee, and local artists and creative businesses on hand.
So the designation is new, its budget is small, and its branding is still being built. A downtown shop that went from selling apparel to running a festival at Heritage Square is the kind of creative business the kickoff set out to highlight. The organization that helped write the application is also the one hosting the season's largest free celebration a week later.
Then the season leaves downtown, and the price drops to zero
After October 17, the festivals move to other venues across the city and admission is free. The RiverPark altar opened two weeks before Panteón Fest, and it stays up a day past the final festival.
- The Collection at RiverPark community altar, now through November 2. OPAC presents it, and it opened with a reception on October 2 between The Cheesecake Factory and Larsen's Grill. It's free and open on multiple days.
- OPAC's Día de los Muertos celebration, Sunday, October 25, 5 to 9 p.m. It takes place at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center, 800 Hobson Way. OPAC's event page calls it a free community event and its seventh annual celebration, with ofrendas, performances, local food vendors and an art show. One regional listing's image says October 26, while OPAC's page and the listing's text both say October 25. A quick check before heading out is worthwhile.
- Oxnard College, Wednesday, October 28, 4 to 8:30 p.m. It's at the Library Learning Resource Center/JCC, 4000 S. Rose Ave., and it's free.
- Rio Generative Farm, Sunday, November 1, noon to 4 p.m. It's at 3410 N. Rose Ave., and it's free.
The OPAC night is the closest match to Panteón Fest in scale, with altars, performances, vendors and an art show, and it costs nothing. It falls the Sunday after Panteón Fest. That spacing lets a household see both a ticketed downtown festival and a free civic celebration without fitting them into the same weekend.
Rose Avenue closes it out
The last two events are both on Rose Avenue: Oxnard College on South Rose and Rio Generative Farm on North Rose. They fall four days apart.
The Oxnard College date needs a warning. The college's own events page still describes the 2025 celebration, held October 30 in front of the Performing Arts Building. The 2026 listing in the regional Día de los Muertos guide gives a different date and location: October 28 at the Library Learning Resource Center/JCC. If you search for the event, the older page is likely to come up first.
Rio Generative Farm ends the season on November 1, Día de los Muertos weekend, with a four-hour midday event. It's the only farm venue on the calendar and the latest date on it.
The same guide notes that more events may still be added. The Carnegie Art Museum, for example, has a community altar tradition on its steps that Visit Oxnard describes, but no schedule or hours are posted. The City of Oxnard's event page for the Carnegie gathering is dated November 1, 2025. No 2026 date had been posted as of this writing.
Fitting it around the rest of downtown's October
The Día de los Muertos events overlap with a busy downtown calendar, and some of it fits around them easily.
The Downtown Oxnard farmers market runs every Thursday at Plaza Park, 500 South C Street, from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Its event page gives the location as Fifth and B Streets. The market's Thursdays during the season are October 15, 22 and 29. That means a market morning comes two days before Panteón Fest and another comes the day after the Oxnard College event.
Saturday, October 24, falls the night before OPAC's celebration. That day, Plaza Park hosts the free 12th Annual Halloween Haunt in the Park from 4 to 7 p.m., with trick-or-treat booths, children's activities and costume contests. For families, that makes October 24 and 25 a two-day weekend: Halloween at Plaza Park on Saturday, then the OPAC celebration on Sunday evening.
Downtown has one gap to plan around. The 1901, at 740 South B Street on the Heritage Square grounds, is listed as temporarily closed for renovations, with no reopening date announced. Panteón Fest has its own food vendors, but anyone hoping for a sit-down meal next door before or after the festival should look elsewhere.
No 2026 holiday schedule for downtown had been posted as of October 12. The holiday page available now covers 2025 activities only, so its dates shouldn't be used for this year.
Hitchcock & Associates follows Oxnard closely, from Heritage Square's October calendar to the streets around Plaza Park. If you live here and are wondering what your home might be worth in the district this season's events are helping shape, Hitchcock & Associates can prepare a complimentary home valuation for you.
