Twelve hours is an unusual length for a ticketed event. Music festivals run that long and pace themselves accordingly; almost nothing else does. Hollywood Forever's Day of the Dead runs from noon to midnight and, crucially, sells admission in three separate windows, which is the organisers telling you plainly that this is three events and you should pick one.
A twelve-hour event is really three different events, and the ticket you buy decides which one you get. Tell Karpo what you want out of the day and get the timing right before you book.
The three windows, and what is in each
Admission comes as noon to four, four to seven, or seven to eleven. Tickets start in the high twenties and the event is now in its twenty-seventh year, which makes it one of the largest Día de los Muertos gatherings anywhere outside Mexico.
The noon window is daylight: the altar exhibition seen properly, the arts and crafts vendors, the children's plaza, the cathedral art exhibition, and the Aztec dancers, whose regalia is built for sunlight and loses a great deal in the dark. This is the window for anybody bringing children or actually wanting to look at things.
The middle window catches the transition, which is the best of it if you only want three hours — the light goes, the candles on the hundreds of altars start doing the work, and the ceremonial procession lands in this general part of the evening.
The last window is the night version: music on the Muerte y Tradición stage, the grounds lit entirely by candle and stage light, and a considerably younger crowd. It is the most atmospheric and the least informative.
The altars are a competition
The altar exhibition is judged, and the prizes are serious: five thousand dollars for the winner, three and a half for second, two and a half for third. There is also a costume competition, at a thousand for the winner and five hundred for the runner-up.
Knowing that changes how you look at the field. These are not casual constructions — people spend months and considerable money on them, and the scale ranges from a family table to installations the size of a small room. The competitive element is sometimes criticised as commercialising a devotional practice, and the counter-argument is standing in front of you: prize money underwrites ambition, and the exhibition is far more extraordinary than it would be without it.
- Held on a Saturday in late October, noon to midnight, at Hollywood Forever Cemetery
- Three admission windows: 12-4pm, 4-7pm and 7-11pm; tickets start in the high twenties
- Altar exhibition with prizes of $5,000, $3,500 and $2,500, plus a costume competition
- Ceremonial procession, Aztec dancers, Muerte y Tradicion stage, children's plaza, cathedral art exhibition
- 27th year — one of the largest Day of the Dead events outside Mexico
The scale is worth preparing for. Twenty-seven years of growth has produced an event that fills a very large site, and you will not see all of it in a three-hour window at a walking pace with stops. Decide beforehand whether you are there for the altars, the stage or the procession, because trying to do all three in one window produces a rushed afternoon and a vague memory of each.
It is a working cemetery
Hollywood Forever is an active burial ground on Santa Monica Boulevard, backing onto the Paramount lot, and it contains the graves of a very long list of people whose films you have seen. It is also, and more importantly on this particular day, the resting place of a great many Angelenos with no connection to the industry at all, whose families attend.
That is the frame to hold. It is a festival with music and vendors, and it is a cemetery where people are visiting relatives. Both things are true simultaneously and the event manages the combination well, but the behaviour that follows is not complicated: stay on paths, do not sit or stand on graves, do not photograph families at a graveside, and treat the altars as offerings rather than as backdrops.
Food is handled by culinary vendors on site and is a genuine part of the day rather than an afterthought — this is Los Angeles, and the standard at a Mexican cultural event here is considerably higher than at a generic festival. Go hungry rather than eating first, and treat the arts and crafts vendors the same way: much of what is sold is made by the people selling it, and this is one of the better opportunities in the year to buy directly from them.
Practicalities
Buy in advance — this sells out, and it has for years. Expect a substantial queue at the gate at the start of each window, so arriving twenty minutes in rather than on the hour is often faster.
The cemetery is on Santa Monica Boulevard in central Hollywood. On-site parking is limited and the surrounding streets are difficult on the day; rideshare drop-off nearby or the B Line to Hollywood and Vine with a short ride down is the more realistic approach. Wear shoes for walking on grass and gravel for several hours, and bring a layer for the evening — the temperature drops sharply once the sun is behind the Paramount wall.
Practical notes
Día de los Muertos at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, held on a Saturday in late October from noon to midnight in its twenty-seventh year. Admission is sold in three windows — noon to 4pm, 4pm to 7pm and 7pm to 11pm — with tickets starting in the high twenties and selling out in advance. The programme includes a judged altar exhibition with a $5,000 first prize, a costume competition, a ceremonial procession, Aztec dancers, the Muerte y Tradición stage, a children's plaza and a cathedral art exhibition. Take the noon window for the altars in daylight and the night window for atmosphere. It is a working cemetery: stay on the paths and do not photograph families at gravesides.
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