Downtown Gilroy turns into a marigold-draped tribute to Día de Muertos this Saturday, Oct. 24, as La Ofrenda Festival and Wellness Fair returns for its fourth year from 1 to 7 p.m. The free, family-friendly event brings altars, live performances and a wellness marketplace to the city's core, with organizers encouraging visitors to skip the parking search entirely and ride transit in instead.
According to the County of Santa Clara
, the festival promises food, live performances and family activities throughout the afternoon, and the county is urging attendees to avoid the hassle of finding parking by taking VTA. The festival itself is billed as Gilroy's fourth annual Día de Muertos Festival and Wellness Fair, according to the
Gilroy Dispatch
, running from 1 to 7 p.m. in downtown Gilroy.
The Dispatch describes vibrant ofrendas adorned with marigold flowers, moving performances and a variety of talented artists as centerpieces of the celebration. Among the festival's signature features is La Gran Ofrenda, a grand-scale altar often standing 10 feet tall and co-created by artists and youth. The 2025 festival also featured the Camino de Ofrendas, which lined Fifth Street, according to NBC Bay Area. The event also folds in lucha libre, live music and an arts, culture and wellness mercado filled with vendors.
Folklórico, Mariachi and a Pink VTA Bus
Programming leans heavily into regional tradition. NBC Bay Area described folklórico dance, mariachi, regional artists and youth performance troupes for the Nov. 1, 2025 festival. The same report described a free Calavera Community Bike Ride as part of that festival, giving families a car-free way to join the celebration.
Transit is woven into the day's identity. The Dispatch's account describes a Transit & Mobility Plaza featuring the festival's own pink-wrapped VTA bus, alongside Garlic City Hybrid Training Workouts, free bike parking and free bike helmets. Silicon Valley Clean Energy returns as this year's presenting partner and will bring its Dream Home mobile demonstration to the grounds, the Dispatch reports.
A Cultural Anchor With a Contested Backer
La Ofrenda Festival was established in 2023, according to the festival's own mission page, which states the organization aims to honor, celebrate and preserve Latine and Indigenous traditions while securing cultural legacy in South County. The inaugural festival took place in downtown Gilroy on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, featuring traditional altars, holiday offerings, food, art, live music, informative booths and free wellness screenings, as reported by the East Bay Times. The event returned for its third year on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025, per VTA's own blog post, which also pointed riders toward Bus Routes 68, 84 and 85 as options that year.
The festival's own mission page identifies Local Color, a 501(c)(3) organization, as its fiscal sponsor.
The organization behind La Ofrenda Festival describes a broader goal of building cross-sector partnerships that expand access to wellness resources across South Santa Clara County, per its mission statement.
The mission page also cites an Americans for the Arts estimate that attendees at Santa Clara County's nonprofit arts and culture events spend an average of $39.56 per person, per event, beyond the cost of admission — a figure the organization points to as evidence of the broader economic ripple effect of events like Saturday's festival. NBC Bay Area described La Ofrenda Festival as a cornerstone of South County's cultural calendar and said it was in its third year in 2025.
The festival runs Saturday from 1 to 7 p.m. in downtown Gilroy, with organizers and the county both steering visitors toward VTA to sidestep parking headaches near the festival grounds.
