Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead)
Click here to find out this year’s sponsors who made this festival happen
Applications, Vendor Information
We
invite you to join us in downtown Oceanside on
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 for this
year’s celebration of Dia de los Muertos! It’s
Oceanside’s eight annual celebration of a festival
that is growing bigger and better every year.
There will be a children’s craft area, street entertainers, and opportunities throughout the day to learn more about the history of this uplifting celebration.
The area that gets the most attention and most favorable compliments year after year is the Chalk Cemetery. This is an interactive area that lets you use flowers, candles and chalk to create a memorial for your loved ones. By the end of the day we will have a beautiful, heart warming garden that stretches for an entire block.
Downtown streets will be changed into a flower filled Mexican plaza using over 30,000 marigolds grown especially for the day by Mellano & Company. Marigolds are used to create the heart of the festival -- the ofrendas or altars created by artists, students, and Oaxacan families as memorials. The flowers are used along with skulls and skeletons, and items that remind us of how our friends and loved ones lived their lives.
And when you’ve purchased your Dia t-shirt, your Pan de Muerto (special bread), and decorated a sugar candy skull, relax with great food and drink in the shade of the palm trees next to the library fountain. Maybe the lively music coming from the festival stage will inspire you to jump up and join in the dancing.
Want
to take part?
If you would like to take part in a great event, call us.
We could use your help planning and preparing -- or you
could help us on the day of the festival in the gallery,
the children’s area, or the info and sales booth. You
could also help decorate the venue with flowers and papel
picado, or help with set up and take down.
Mark the date...
Oceanside’s Dia de los Muertos Celebration for 2008
is on Sunday, November 2nd from 10:00am to 4:00pm. Pier
View Way at Coast Highway. To volunteer or to book a food
or retail booth, call 760 754-4512.
Dia de los Muertos takes place in the downtown area in Oceanside and is within walking distance from the SPRINTER platform at Oceanside Transit Center. The SPRINTER operates every half hour on weekends, click here for station departure times.