For four years, Día de los Muertos in Kirkland was a single Saturday afternoon at Peter Kirk Community Center. This year there are two Saturdays. The City's free gathering returns on October 24. A week later, on October 31, a new collective called Mundo Catrina holds the first Kirkland Catrina Walk at Marina Park. It runs from late morning into the evening and includes a procession through downtown.
Halloween falls on a Saturday in 2026. So this year the biggest all-day event on the downtown waterfront that day is a Día de los Muertos celebration, not a costume crawl. That changes how the last two weekends of October fit together.
The afternoon that started it in 2022
The City's event began small. Kirkland called its October 29, 2022 gathering its first Día de los Muertos celebration. The program included storytelling, paper-flower making, sugar-skull crafts and a community ofrenda.
By 2023 the City was calling it an annual event. Attendees were invited to bring a photo or keepsake for the ofrenda, and Cafecito Mexican Bakery provided pan de muerto and aguas frescas. The 2024 lineup added performers: Baile Colibri, a middle school music group and the Catrina Queen. In 2025 the City listed hands-on crafts, Baile Colibri again, Gema Choir, the Catrina Queen and a Mariposa guest, plus pan de muerto, aguas frescas, and Cafecito pastries and drinks for purchase.
The format has held steady every year. It's a free, all-ages afternoon at Peter Kirk Community Center on the last Saturday of October, with an ofrenda and crafts at the center and a bakery partner supplying the bread.
October 24: what's confirmed for year five
The City's 2026 listing puts the gathering on Saturday, October 24, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Peter Kirk Community Center, 352 Kirkland Avenue. It's free and open to all ages. The listing promises traditional activities, food and music, and it names Cafecito Mexican Bakery as sponsor.
The 2026 listing does not name performers, crafts or an ofrenda. Everything in the section above describes past years. The pattern from 2022 through 2025 suggests what the afternoon usually looks like, but this year's program hasn't been posted.
Cafecito is not a Kirkland storefront. Its dine-in cafe is at 15364 NE 96th Place in Redmond, and the business also sells at markets and pop-ups. The bakery says its pastries are baked from scratch. Founders Lizeet and Porfirio bill Cafecito as the first and only Mexican bakery on the Eastside. Their pan de muerto is a brioche-style bread flavored with orange blossom, orange zest and cinnamon. It comes sugared, with sesame, with black ash and totomoxtle, or filled with cajeta or Nutella. When checked this month, the product page showed it as unavailable, so availability is worth confirming before planning around it.
The same Saturday keeps going after 4 p.m.
October 24 doesn't end when the City event does. One hour after Peter Kirk wraps up, Kirkland Urban hosts Treat Street from 5 to 8 p.m. at 425 Urban Plaza, according to Seattle's Child. It's free and open to all ages.
Seattle's Child lists the Treat Street lineup:
- Trick-or-treating at participating Kirkland Urban businesses
- A Boo-tanical Garden Corn Maze
- A Monster Bash Dance Party with a live DJ
- A Trick-or-Treat Candy Wall, where a live hand reaches through with a trick or a treat
- Costumed characters, balloon artists and Halloween music
Parking comes with up to four hours free when validated by any Kirkland Urban business. Minors must be with an adult at all times on the property.
The October 24 schedule, in order:
- 2 to 4 p.m. at Peter Kirk Community Center, for the City's Día de los Muertos gathering
- A one-hour gap
- 5 to 8 p.m. at Kirkland Urban, for Treat Street
So Kirkland's mainstream Halloween event happens a week before Halloween. The waterfront is left to Mundo Catrina on the 31st.
October 31: a first-year procession at Marina Park
The Kirkland Catrina Walk runs Saturday, October 31, at Marina Park, 25 Lakeshore Plaza Drive. Explore Kirkland lists it as free, from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The plan is a day of Catrinas, live music, cultural performances, art, local vendors and family activities, plus a Catrina Walk through downtown Kirkland.
The organizer's own announcement on AllEvents opens with "For the first time, Mundo Catrina proudly presents the Kirkland Catrina Walk at Marina Park." It lists a Catrina Cultural Procession, live entertainment, art and cultural exhibits, an artisan marketplace, food vendors and family activities.
That announcement gives the end time as 8 p.m., while Explore Kirkland says 8:30. Plan around 8:30 and check again closer to the day.
Who Mundo Catrina is
Mundo Catrina is new. WA Latino News reported in June that founder Julieta Juarez formed the cultural-arts collective to represent Mexican culture and her own Catrina tradition. The same report covered its June 11 procession at Seattle Center during the FIFA World Cup, which drew roughly 75 Catrina participants.
That Seattle Center procession is the group's only documented track record. It tells you the scale Mundo Catrina has already organized. It doesn't predict turnout in Kirkland, since no Kirkland edition has happened yet.
What hasn't been announced
The event is close, and much of the program is still open. As of the organizer's listing, applications were still being taken from:
- Catrinas and Catrines
- Artisan, cultural and retail vendors
- Food vendors
- Artists and performers
- Community organizations and nonprofits
- Sponsors and volunteers
The listing promises "more exciting announcements, special guests, and event details."
No street-by-street route for the downtown walk has been published, and no timed schedule or named performers either. The procession starts from Marina Park and goes through downtown. Anyone hoping to watch from a particular sidewalk will have to wait for Mundo Catrina to post the route.
What else is on the Kirkland calendar that week
A few nearby dates fill in around the two Saturdays.
Friday, October 30. The City's Pee Wee Monster Bash runs from 10 a.m. to noon at North Kirkland Community Center, 12421 103rd Ave. NE. It's for ages 1 to 5 and costs $18 per child.
October 31 and November 1, in Seattle. Seattle Center's Día de Muertos festival takes over the Armory for both days. It's free and includes performances, altars, face-painting, sugar-skull workshops and visual art. That festival opens the same day as the Catrina Walk, so Kirkland's new Saturday overlaps Seattle's regional festival while the City's Peter Kirk afternoon still lands a week ahead of it.
Not on the list. No Día de los Muertos or ofrenda program turned up in the KCLS Kirkland Library events listing. We also found no separate downtown trick-or-treat event announced for October 31.
Two Saturdays, two different kinds of event
The two Saturdays are built differently.
October 24 follows a format the City has refined over four years. It's two hours at a community center, with crafts, an ofrenda tradition and a bakery partner that has been part of it since at least 2023. So far the City has posted only the basics for this year.
October 31 is a debut. It's run by a collective that formed this year, and it covers about nine and a half hours on the waterfront with a procession through downtown streets. Vendors, performers and the route were still open at last check.
Between them sits Kirkland Urban's Treat Street, which takes the trick-or-treat role on the 24th. On the calendar, that leaves Halloween itself to the Catrinas at Marina Park. The City's Peter Kirk listing and Mundo Catrina's announcements are the two pages to check for whatever gets posted next.
Angie Holmstrom Homes keeps track of what's happening around the Eastside, from the Peter Kirk calendar to new events like the Catrina Walk. If you have questions about life near Marina Park and downtown Kirkland, Angie Holmstrom Homes is happy to talk it through. Let's Connect.
